[access-uk] Re: Hydraulics Could Enable Fullscreen Braille Display
- From: "Damon Rose" <damon.rose@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:47:40 +0100
Gosh. Good article. Sounds like it could make braille cheaper if they can make
the materials react fast enough ... but can't see a full screen braille display
being implemented into a PDA. Well nothing that would be small enough to be
thought of as a personal digital assistant.
Though it's useful to see how information, links and icons are related in
space, we do only read one letter or word at a time in Braille. Size and
economics will be the key here. A literally 'full screen' experience could be
approaching the size of the cork noticeboard in my kitchen, I'd have thought.
And it would be a difficult reading experience, especially if bits were being
updated.
However it will be an entirely new way of thinking and, coupled with useful
audio messages and beeps, may have its place in certain applications.
I'd be really interested in reading any radical thinking people have about
bigger braille displays and displaying information. I write this on the eve of
the Apple iPad being launched and the various fascinating discussions around
the fact that we just don't know the possibilities or applications for a larger
mass market touch screen device. As with when television was invented in the
early 20th century, we still don't know what it could be used for. Ditto large
braille displays in 2010.
And how about touch screen braille displays? Wow! Imagine it, you can feel
anywhere you want on the display but when you touch the screen and press the
'action' button at the bottom then the huge braille display translates it as a
command. i.e. click this link, fire that laser, book that train ticket, play
that track, draw that circle. I'm going off into fantasy mode and realising how
amazing such a thing could be for education and potentially even opening up the
world of engineering and technical design a little more to visually impaired
people. It could be a great thing.
...Damon
________________________________
From: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Vanja Sudar
Sent: 31 March 2010 12:34
To: access-uk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [access-uk] Hydraulics Could Enable Fullscreen Braille Display
An interesting article from wired.com hope you find it interesting.
or most blind computer users, surfing the internet or catching up on e-mail
means reading just one line at a time, because commercially available braille
displays can't show full pages of text.
Researchers from North Carolina State University now say they have devised a
display that would allow visually challenged users to read a full page at a
time - and at a much lower cost than existing displays.
"We have developed a low-cost, compact, full-page braille display that is fast
and can be used in PDAs, cellphones and even GPS systems," says Dr. Peichun
Yang, one of the researchers working on the project, who is himself blind.
A full-page display is better because it allows readers to skip paragraphs and
read the parts they want, instead of forcing them to go over it line by line.
Full-page display also presents more information in a shorter time.
Braille characters,
developed by Louis Braille in 1821,
are created by a pattern of raised dots. Alphabets, punctuation and numerals
are represented in cells. Each cell is made of six dots arranged in a 2×3
dot matrix. A dot may be raised at any of the six positions to form the
characters.
"Braille is very significant, and statistically about 90 percent of blind
people who have a job can read braille," says Dr. Yang. "It's a very important
part of their ability to read."
Braille displays on the market now use piezo-ceramics, in which a 2-inch-long
lever forces up the dots, explains Dr Yang. "It's expensive and limiting,"
he says.
As a result, a typical braille display today has just one line of 80 cells, and
can cost up to $8,000.
Instead, Dr Yang and his team developed a new way to create the raised dots.
Each cell in their display uses what is called a "hydraulic and latching
mechanism."
"The mechanism can offer a large displacement and fast response time
simultaneously, which is the key to a good commercial braille display," says
Dr. Yang.
A four-line display developed using the new system could be around $1,000, and
fullscreen displays could come later.
Here's how Dr. Yang's technology works. Picture each cell as a rectangular
cavity that is filled with liquid. The top and bottom have a small opening that
is sealed with a flexible diaphragm. There are four bendable actuators made of
electroactive polymers
- which means they change shape when voltage is applied - on each side.
By manipulating the voltage, two facing polymers can be made to displace the
fluid housed within them. This pushes the fluid up towards the top, raising
the dot. Once the dots are raised, a latching mechanism would support the
weight being applied by a person's fingers as the dots are read. A refreshable
braille dot has a response time of around 30 milliseconds.
Dr. Yang and his team hope to create prototype displays within a year, and if
successful they can be commercially produced.
Wired.com © 2009 Condé Nast Digital. All rights reserved.
The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted,
cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast
http://www.bbc.co.uk/
This e-mail (and any attachments) is confidential and may contain personal
views which are not the views of the BBC unless specifically stated.
If you have received it in error, please delete it from your system.
Do not use, copy or disclose the information in any way nor act in reliance on
it and notify the sender immediately.
Please note that the BBC monitors e-mails sent or received.
Further communication will signify your consent to this.
Other related posts:
