-----Original Message----- From: Peter Meijer [mailto:Peter.B.L.Meijer@xxxxxxxxxxx]=20 Sent: Friday, November 28, 2003 8:59 AM To: seeingwithsound@xxxxxxxxxx Subject: [The vOICe] Uniplan develops tactile PC image display for blind Hi All, For your information. Appended is an article from yesterday's Japan Economic Newswire about a new tactile matrix display. Best wishes, Peter Meijer Seeing with Sound - The vOICe http://www.seeingwithsound.com/winvoice.htm Uniplan develops tactile PC image display for blind. MATSUE, Japan. Uniplan Ltd., a maker of welfare service equipment, said Thursday it has developed a 'tactile display' that enables the blind and people with severely impaired vision to recognize images and characters formed by protruding pins in response to data input with a personal computer. The horizontal display creates images and characters by raising or lowering by one millimeter the 3,000 plastic pins on its surface which the blind can recognize by touch, Uniplan said. The computer controlling the display discerns images and characters input or drawn with the computer's keyboard, mouse or scanner, and the display arranges pin formations in just 18 seconds, the company told a news conference. The space between each pin is 2.5 mm. Uniplan President Masaaki Takahashi said the company will further improve the flat display 'so that the blind, including children who we hope will use it as a sort of dictionary, can use it daily.' Uniplan said it will start selling the display - measuring 16 centimeters in width and 12 cm in length - by March 31, 2005 at a low price to facilitate worldwide sales. 'We hope to price the display at approximately 300,000 yen ($2,750) and, if possible, we would like to give it an even lower price,' Takahashi said. The company said it has already received a proposal from a U.S. organization aiding the blind to jointly work on the display, as well as a price inquiry. An official at the Shimane Industrial Promotion Foundation, an entity affiliated with the Shimane prefectural government, said, 'The display may become a global standard as a widely used item of equipment for the blind.' The company said it plans to further improve the display so that it can project images and text on Internet sites onto the display. Source URL: http://www.snowbeast.net/blind/newsarticle.asp?u_id=3D1607 --^---------------------------------------------------------------- This email was sent to: jeavons@xxxxxxxxx EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?b1diuC.b6QyBH.amVhdm9u Or send an email to: seeingwithsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxx TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html --^----------------------------------------------------------------