Graphic Reading Systems For The Blind Licensed

Technology News Daily, AZ, USA 
Friday, October 26, 2007

Graphic Reading Systems For The Blind Licensed

Published Fri, 2007-10-26 19:24 

A recently completed licensing agreement for two novel National Institute of 
Standards and Technology (NIST) technologies may help bring affordable graphic 
reading systems for the blind and visually impaired to market. The two systems 
bring electronic images to life in the same way that Braille makes words 
readable.

ELIA Life Technology Inc. of New York, N.Y., licensed for commercialization 
both the tactile graphic display device and fingertip graphic reader developed 
by NIST researchers. 

LINK:
http://www.elialife.com/

The former, first introduced as a prototype in 2002, allows a person to feel a 
succession of images on a reusable surface by raising some 3,600 small pins 
(actuator points) into a pattern that can be locked in place, read by touch and 
then reset to display the next graphic in line. Each image-from scanned 
illustrations, Web pages, electronic books or other sources-is sent 
electronically to the reader where special software determines how to create a 
matching tactile display. 

LINK: (For more information, see "NIST 'Pins' Down Imaging System for the 
Blind".)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2002/11/021113072111.htm

An array of about 100 small, very closely spaced (1/10 of a millimeter apart) 
actuator points set against a user's fingertip is the key to the more recently 
created "tactile graphic display for localized sensory stimulation." To "view" 
a computer graphic with this technology, a blind or visually impaired person 
moves the device-tipped finger across a surface like a computer mouse to scan 
an image in computer memory. The computer sends a signal to the display device 
and moves the actuators against the skin to "translate" the pattern, 
replicating the sensation of the finger moving over the pattern being 
displayed. With further development, the technology could possibly be used to 
make fingertip tactile graphics practical for virtual reality systems or give a 
detailed sense of touch to robotic control (teleoperation) and space suit 
gloves.

The inspiration for both NIST graphic displays came from a "bed of nails" toy 
found in a novelty store. Watching the pins in the toy depress under fingers 
and then return to their original state started the researchers thinking about 
how the principle could be applied to electronic signals.


http://www.technologynewsdaily.com/node/8359
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