Braille e-reader concept can't be far from reality

The technology's already here, we just need a venture capital firm and a determined entrepreneur to make it happen. A foursome of designers -- Seon-Keun Park, Byung-Min Woo, Sun-Hye Woo and Jin-Sun Park -- have banded together to create the above pictured concept, an e-reader for those with limited or no vision. Their Braille E-Book concept theoretically relies on electroactive polymers in order to change the surface's shape as pages are turned, and while we fully expect the battery life to suffer due to all the necessary commotion, it's definitely a start that needs to happen.

[superhobo @ Apr 20th 2009 4:27AM]

Braille is a good application of this technology. But I'm thinking touchscreen keyboards with keys that raise themselves.

[AMiSH PiRATE @ Apr 20th 2009 4:32AM]

Totally with you, superhobo! I'm sick of all these "handicap" people exploiting the technology built on the backs of my visually unimpaired brethren.
/sarcasm

[superhobo @ Apr 20th 2009 4:42AM]

ARRRR

Anyway, are they brothers or something? The Woo and Park Bros.

[Tonicboy @ Apr 20th 2009 5:11AM]

@superhobo

Yes, clearly anyone with the same last name must be brothers, duh!

[superhobo @ Apr 20th 2009 6:36AM]

Yes, quite clearly. Because I stated it as a fact and not a question.

[Quakerface @ Apr 20th 2009 6:44AM]

I have a Min woo at my school.. he is a pretty good designer.. :))

[Quakerface @ Apr 20th 2009 6:48AM]

but in all seriousness.. This thing is awesome!! i mean renderring any website or any electrical book into Braille in a flash!!! any book, any educational literature. INSTANTLY. by seeing people, to help everyone else.. hearing is good but not so good. imagine thousands of new engadget readers!! through this. plus learn how to render images to be 3d feelable, and you are a money god. there are o many blind guys out there.

[OneLove @ Apr 20th 2009 10:45AM]

They gonna get sued by monster. :)

[Kaitou KID @ Apr 20th 2009 4:34AM]

The advantage of this over audio books for the blind (and not deaf) is what again?

[superhobo @ Apr 20th 2009 4:37AM]

You can read and understand much faster than you can hear and understand.

[Ignofibininious @ Apr 20th 2009 4:37AM]

Which is faster for you, reading a book, or listening to an audio book?

[mocax @ Apr 20th 2009 4:39AM]

they don't come with funny accents...

[Kaitou KID @ Apr 20th 2009 4:42AM]

Interesting points people. Well for me, I have eyes, so reading is many times faster. But I've seen people read with Braille and they use their fingers line by line so I'm not sure what the benefit would be on an E-reader vs audio that's read to you. Plus a blind person kinda needs to find a way to get that stuff from a computer onto the reader...I just don't see this working out, no pun intended. :(

[SABRAGE @ Apr 20th 2009 5:06AM]

This thing pulls mad pussy.

[Tonicboy @ Apr 20th 2009 5:14AM]

The difference? About a few billion written books (most of which can be easily digitized) versus about a hundred thousand audio books in existence.

[Chuckles McGee @ Apr 20th 2009 5:18AM]

@tonicboy

There's that old Kindle text-to-speech feature...

[mhc @ Apr 20th 2009 5:22AM]

Interaction might be easier - e.g. jumping to a section, reading the same line again.

Navigating an audiobook without a GUI is difficult (try it on an iPod Shuffle).

[Romesh @ Apr 20th 2009 9:59AM]

Come on, there really is no comparison between listening to someone else read a book vs. reading it by yourself at your own pace

[Vidikron @ Apr 20th 2009 10:12AM]

Hey, why not give a device like this a text-to-speach feature and the ability to play audio books? Then you have the best for any situation.

[DanF @ Apr 20th 2009 10:55AM]

It has nothing to do with the advantage of one over the other, it is offering the options that non-handicapped people already have. Nobody is telling you that you cannot choose to read a book instead of listening to it, you have the right and ability to choose.

Target tried to fight it and lost, claiming (in the beginning) that visually impaired users can shop elsewhere, now they are at the forefront of website accessibility. The were forced to be fully accessible by Feb 2009, just as their brick and mortar stores are.

It's unfortunate that you feel others should not be afforded the same options that you currently enjoy. By the way, blind people use computers too.

[Joe @ Apr 20th 2009 2:38PM]

Try comprehending a table of data as audio, very painful. Braille would work better in this instance.

[allenvanhellen @ Apr 20th 2009 4:42AM]

Shrink this down, pair it with switchable backlighting, and you've got a badass wristwatch!

Ooh and what about using this on the external display of cell phones? You could feel your phone to see if you've got a text or missed call!

[Zu @ Apr 20th 2009 4:46AM]

Yeah they have a concept with no idea or capability to make true... in related news I've made a teleporter concept. You step in on one and then you appear out the other end. All I need is a venture capital firm and a determined entrepreneur to make it happen.

Besides I've seen this concept twice before.

I hate it how designers just decide "we are awesome!111" and push these designs that are really nothing more than a basic idea that hundreds have had before. There are no engineering sketches, no estimations on the actual functioning, no interface ideas, no study on how text can be reflowed in braile...

And it took 4 people to think this up? If I look at those names it looks like 2 sets of siblings.

[dan @ Apr 20th 2009 7:15AM]

It's depressing, isn't it; to be shown these pretty renders of an exciting new piece of kit, and then scroll down and read 'Their [misc. gadget] concept theoretically relies on [various shit that does not exist yet]'.

[feffrey @ Apr 20th 2009 4:47AM]

Why would the device need to be so big? Why not just make it the size of a small cell phone and the person can just leave their finger over the device. The device would then shift the dots as fast as the person would want.
Instead of the person moving their finger across a sheet of Braille, the person would keep their finger still while the device would form the Braille dots and would "move" the dots across the surface.

[profs @ Apr 20th 2009 5:01AM]

Because that's not how Braille works. You need to move you finger for the text to be readable.

[ioannisnousias @ Apr 20th 2009 5:01AM]

nice idea. I'm guessing the 'refresh' rate is not high enough to achieve that effect.

[TeddyLikesComputahs! @ Apr 20th 2009 5:14AM]

When i first saw the headline and the picture, i thought it was prank (a very cruel one), but this could be one of the best inventions ever!!!

[Mitch @ Apr 20th 2009 5:16AM]

This seems like a fairly easy thing to create, all you would need is board with lots of individual points that can go up and down and a processor to tell them when to go up and down.

[mocax @ Apr 20th 2009 5:28AM]

a braille GPS device would be nice...

[roberkules @ Apr 20th 2009 5:40AM]

but why is the name of the product on the lower right not written in braille too???

[xValentine @ Apr 20th 2009 5:59AM]

"Braille e-reader concept can't be far from reality"

And so as Skynet.

[fastgeek @ Apr 20th 2009 6:20AM]

Amaingly awesome! Not that I have the first idea how to read braille, but it should be pretty cool to see the screen refreshing between pages. Wonder how long page loads will take? So long as it's reasonable, and the durability is good, this should be an amazing product. :-)

[fh @ Apr 20th 2009 6:26AM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refreshable_Braille_display

[jccalhoun @ Apr 20th 2009 10:10AM]

I remember when I was an undergrad back in the early 90s there was a guy who worked in the computer lab who had one of these. I"m sure they have gotten better in the 15+ years since then.

I wonder if this company has any real experience with making tech for the blind. It seems like the Braille displays that already exist would be easier to adapt to an ereader than reinventing the wheel.

[fffunfarm06 @ Apr 20th 2009 6:37AM]

blind people dont deserve to read

[fffunfarm06 @ Apr 20th 2009 6:41AM]

god gave them blindness for a reason people!

[souravgh @ Apr 20th 2009 8:30AM]

I really hope God doesnt let u reproduce.

[Marian @ Apr 20th 2009 7:44AM]

Umm...errr...the vast majority blind people don't READ Braille. But it would be pretty easy for those who do to transfer files from a computer.

[pete @ Apr 20th 2009 9:16AM]

why does this have to be on all the time? couldn't it just change the shape of the braille and then essentially turn off until you turn the page? its not like this is an lcd screen with a constant backlight.

[DYMongoose @ Apr 20th 2009 9:59AM]

My mom is blind so I've seen my share of braille books. They're insanely thick do to the raised letters - a children's story is as thick as a college textbook. This would be an amazing advance in the technology. Yes, it would probably require assistance from someone who can see during setup, but the use of it would (or should) not. Too cool, I say.

[tim @ Apr 20th 2009 11:38AM]

Right, and I assume this reader will be charged through a micro-USB connector. Don't be so sure these designers have thought it through how to make it usable to the blind.

It looks slick, isn't it enough? Oh... you never said you actually wanted to be able to use it. Back to the drawing board...

[Jon Doe. @ Apr 20th 2009 10:54AM]

Every time I see something about braille I think back to Sneakers and the braille Playboy mag that Whistler had. Funny stuff.

[dr25 @ Apr 20th 2009 11:44AM]

Reality check. I am a totally blind person so have a bit of knowledge in this area. I also happen to be an Oracle DBA. I point that out only so that folks understand that blind people can and do interact with computers, some quite well.

OK, firstly, true, about 15% of blind people read braille. False: listening to a book is as good as reading one in braille. Reading a book in braille is slower, for many braille readers, including myself. However, it is much more satisfying, it enables you to put your own interpretation to the words rather than having the narrators interpretation forced on you. Also, if you only ever listen to words, you become functionally illiterate because you don't have the reenforcement of seeing the structure of the words.

Along those lines, the Kindle 2 is not an accessible device. yes, it can read books with text to speech, but the UI is inaccessible. I cannot navigate my book library with any audio feedback. The concept of electronic books is astounding to blind people though since it does allow us access to many more books than just those that have been recorded.

Refreshable Braille displays do exist, and have existed for more than 30 years now. No, they have not significantly advanced during that time. They are typically restricted to one line displays with anywhere from 20 to 80 cells. They are extremely expensive priced at roughly $100 per braille cell, yes an 80 character display can cost $8K.

Holding your finger in one place and having dots pop up under it has been proven to be a very poor method of reading braille, much like flashing one character, or even one word at a time to a sighted person. Way back when, someone attempted making essentially a braille mouse, it had a couple of braille cells on it and you would put your fingers on the mouse and slide it back and forth, which gave the illusion of moving your hands across a page. this also did not work, subjects found it disorienting.

Over the years, I have heard of many vaporware devices such as this one. I even designed one myself. Vaporware is pretty easy to design.

[Mr. Picklesworth @ Apr 20th 2009 11:48AM]

So, anyone else notice that this mockup /looks/ way prettier, and smaller, than the typical ginormous ebook reader for seeing people? They figured out how not to cram it full of buttons :)
I want one!

[wys0123 @ Apr 20th 2009 12:38PM]

a lot of e-ink ebooks don't even look this nice.

[mian @ Apr 20th 2009 12:46PM]

Awesome tech. Especially if the reader itself could translate regular ebooks into braille. Doesn't seem like that would be too hard.

[prettylazy @ Apr 20th 2009 2:49PM]

I'm Seon-Keun Park (Eng name is Sean Park). Thanks for your comments. It's just [Concept] design. So there are so many weakness in this concept. I wish your understanding. :) If you want to know more, send me a e-mail. [e-mail].

[Erasure25 @ Apr 20th 2009 5:54PM]

This sounds good as long as public funds from any state medical programs are not used to purchase these as "necessary" medical expenses. You'd be surprised how much public money can sometimes go towards luxury purchases.

[tekd @ Apr 20th 2009 8:55PM]

Man, I'm a medical student and I was thinking about trying to build something like this two years ago with another med student who's also an engineer. But never really found enough time to work on it.
I'm glad someone went ahead and did it though, and I have to admit their version is a lot more integrated than what we were planning on cobbling together.