Samsung’s Touchable Ink prints braille using any laser printer
BY MATTHEW HUMPHRIES
Braille printers can cost thousands of dollars, where as laser printers
can be picked up for under $100. So wouldn’t it be great is laser
printers could somehow print out braille and completely remove the cost
of purchasing a special printer for the visually impaired? That’s
exactly what Samsung have managed to do thanks to a new ink.
Your typical laser printer produces a completely smooth printed page.
That doesn’t work for braille as visually impaired people rely on the
raised dots that form the braille patterns in order to read using their
fingers. So Samsung collaborated with the Thailand Association of the
Blind and a chemistry professor at Thammasat University to solve the
problem in ink rather than hardware.
The end result is called Touchable Ink. It’s a laser printer ink that
has had embossing powder added to it. Using it is simple: just switch
out a standard laser ink cartridge for a Touchable Ink version. Then
change the font of the document you want to print into braille and print
the page. The final step involves heat. Using a hair dryer or a
microwave heat the printed page, which makes the ink dilate and form the
raised dots.
TOUCHABLE INK - Cannes Lions 2016
Watch TOUCHABLE INK - Cannes Lions 2016
Touchable Ink is still a work in progress, but has proved good enough
even at this early stage of development to be awarded the Grand Prix
award for Design, Healthcare and Innovation at Spikes Asia 2016. Tests
carried out with visually impaired individuals saw a 90% success rate in
being able to read Touchable Ink printed pages.
As the braille printing only relies on using Touchable Ink, it should
work with any and all laser printers. And even if Touchable Ink
cartridges are a little more expensive than the standard ones, it’s
still going to be a lot cheaper than buying a special braille printer.
source URL:
https://www.geek.com/tech/samsungs-touchable-ink-prints-braille-using-any-laser-printer-1673209/
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