Breakthrough Smart Watch Converts Text and Email into Braille Network
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/feel-this-smart-watch-convert-text-and-email-
into-braille/
The Dot Watch, which turns text messages into braille for the blind, is
being celebrated as the first major innovation for visually impaired readers
in nearly 15 years.
After seeing a blind classmate lugging around a heavy braille bible, which
contained only five percent of the contents of the holy book, Eric Ju Yoon
Kim was surprised that nothing like a Braille iPad existed.
So the University of Washington
<http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/?s=WASHINGTON+STATE> student set out to
invent one.
His first product is a smart watch that raises and lowers pins on its face
to create four Braille characters at a time. The watch works with both iOS
and Android devices, allowing the blind
<http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/tag/blindness/> to immediately read texts,
alerts, and other short messages.
Electro-mechanical Braille <http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/?s=BRAILLE>
readers can translate text on computer screens in a method similar to the
DOT watch, but the bulky machines can cost more than $2,000.
His company, DOT Inc <http://fingerson.strikingly.com/> ,
http://fingerson.strikingly.com/
plans to sell their wearable device for about $300.
It's impractical for reading longer text such as an e-book, so DOT Inc's
next project is the world's first Braille smart device which they plan to
deliver in 2017.
The DOT Pad will feature multiple layers of Braille pins, allowing a more
natural reading experience. The DOT Pad will also let users feel shapes,
math symbols, and read e-books.
Only about one percent of all books
<http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/?s=BOOKS> in print have been translated for
the blind. Having a pocket device that could translate vast libraries of
e-books into Braille would write a whole new chapter in reading for the
blind.
A video can be watched at the link below.
If using a screenreader, once accessing the link press the letter b twice
to land on a "play" button then hit the spacebar.
."
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/feel-this-smart-watch-convert-text-and-email-
into-braille/
Article by from "Good News."
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/feel-this-smart-watch-convert-text-and-email-
into-braille/Terry Turner
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