While many in Raleigh are wondering whatever happened to the glory days of 1983, Dr. Neil Di Spigna and company are doing far more productive things at
NC State. It's no secret that the holy grail of
Braille is a tactile display that could change on a whim in order to give blind viewers a way to experience richer content (and lots more of it) when reading, but not until today have we been reasonably confident that such a goal was attainable. Gurus at the university have just concocted a "hydraulic and latching mechanism" concept, vital to the creation of the full-page, refreshable Braille display system. As you may expect, the wonder of this solution is the display's ability to erect dots at the precise points, retract them, and re-erect another set when the reader scrolls through a document or presses a "link" on a website. We're told that the researchers have already presented their findings, and if all goes well, they'll have a fully functioning prototype "within a year." Here's hoping a suitable replacement to Lee Fowler is also unearthed during the same window.
posted April 1st 2010 4:43AM
Really neat. Glad to see there is still effort out there to bring the blind into the digital age.
@Weber 09 and if they can combine this with a visual display, we might even get touchscreens which we can feel what we touch..
so in the end, maybe everyone wins?
Sorry, isn't this an obvious idea? Raised dots should not really be a problem; I can think of about 5 different ways it could be done off the top of my head. I guess the biggest obstacle is it's quite a niche market, so not much commercial/research interest pushing it forward..
I was under the impression most blind computer users used screen reading software. Surely that is more convenient, as it requires no extra hardware than the PC they're already using.
@in5ane
No, that is inconvenient; you always need sound, headphones can be a bother, and skipping ahead isn't as easy as it is when reading, be it braille or latin alphabetic text. And try clicking a link while using a screenreader, it's not impossible but it'd make more sense just to tap a word on your braille screen.
@graey
I'm not saying I have all the answers... in fact, this is the first time I've really considered the topic much at all!
Let's face it, the biggest inconvenience is being blind in the first place. You're never going to get it as easy as everyone else. Nothing is going to be 'ideal'. But the problems you mention can be worked around.
I'm sure 90% of PCs have sound, and I have headphones in all day while working at my PC.
Skipping and clicking could be assigned actions like anything else. Be it speech recognition or hitting spacebar to follow a link, or clicking a mouse. I don't know what peripherals a blind person has to be honest.
My point, that I didn't make clear, was get something right without needing extra hardware opens up nearly every PC to blind people if they need it, not just their own at home that they've set up specially with extra expense.
This is all with reference to web browsing tho. I can see how a dedicated Braille ebook reader would be good, but the top priorities for that should be portability and battery life. Once a decent device like that existed, making it work as an interactive PC peripheral would be a bonus.
@in5ane
No, it's obvious. There have already been limited-line-count braille terminals before, and I've seen piston-raising haptic displays at siggraph for more than 10 years.
The particular mechanical approach may be novel, though.
@in5ane
Yes, but all those ways of using the web are very sensitive timing-wise, e.g. to follow a link you'd have to hit spacebar before your screenreader reads the next one. Whereas if you use a braille-display combined with some touch technology, it's the same as using 'normal' alphabetic text, you can do it at your own pace.
As you say, there are sevreal ways to do the job from text to speech readers to tactile surfaces. The big diference would seem to come from the difference from reading a book yourself and having it read to you.
I can also see a big need for a scanner that does on-the-fly conversion to a format (text to speech or braille) that a blind person could use to read stuff like airline tickets and othr stuff that is just handed to them.
This technology wpuld seem to be one more step in the right direction.
@rederikus
> the difference from reading a book yourself and having it read to you.
Maybe I'm just lazy, but now the infrastructure is there and the market is more mature, I'm going for more and more audio books. I can see, but I like books being read to me. Great for closing your eyes at night and listening, or just getting a book done while on the move.
Your scanner idea is a bit ambitious, but something like a high capacity colour barcode could easily convey enough information to a smartphone to read out, or a portable Braille ebook type thing.
@rederikus
On the fly reading exists. Check out Kurzweil Educational Systems.
This already exists to an extent. In fact, its been around a while.
http://www.synapseadaptive.com/alva/Alva_Pro/alva_products.htm
However, I think these guys are going for a full page as opposed to just a line of refreshable braille. That could be sweet. It would be like having an interactive Tiger embosser. Nice.
@Speakerfy
I was thinking this must exist already. They have something like this in the movie "Sneakers".
Hell, if I can't be proud about our athletics, at least this is something to be proud about.
go wolfpack haha
i can't wait for all my blind friends to find out about this by reading the article. wait...
@1andrew19944
Lame.
If you had blind friends, they would be able to read this. If you do have blind friends, I hope they do read this.
so does it work like a rectangular chapstick?
Now this is freaking cool.