The continuing quest for the 'Holy Braille' of tactile displays

Abstract

The Boston-based National Braille Press has established a Center for Braille Innovation (CBI), whose mission is to research and develop affordable braille literacy products. The primary focus has been to facilitate the development of dramatically lower cost electronic braille display devices, and the much-sought-after "Holy Braille" of a full-page electronic braille display. Developing affordable new braille technologies is crucial to improving the extremely low braille literacy rate (around 12%) of blind students. Our CBI team is working to aid developers of braille technology by focusing attention and resources on the development of the underlying braille actuator technologies. We are also developing braille-related information resources to aid braille display developers. The CBI braille requirements summary (available through the NBP website (http://www.nbp.org) is one of these resources. The braille specifications include braille dot dimensions, spacing, displacement, lifting force, and response time requirements. In addition, mentoring, helping to evaluate new braille display ideas, and openly sharing braille display technology are all part of the activities of the NBP braille innovation team.

Refreshable Braille Displays

“…A matrix consisting of 3x2 raised dots is used in order to classify each of the 26 alphabets, the punctuation and the numbers. [3] The pattern of the raised dots help the person to decode the corresponding message. There are two types of braille, alphabetic braille and literary braille.…”