From MIT Technology Review ...
In Pursuit of an Affordable Tablet for the Blind
By borrowing from microfluidics, a team of University of Michigan
researchers are reinventing the braille display to be cheaper and more
useful.
By Signe Brewster on January 11, 2016
A prototype of the tablet, which uses air or fluid to raise the dots
that create braille letters.
An inexpensive, full-page braille tablet could make topics like science
and math more easily accessible to the blind, according to a team of
researchers who have built a prototype device.
The device, which is under development at the University of Michigan,
uses liquid or air to fill tiny bubbles, which then pop up and create
the blocks of raised dots that make up braille. Each bubble has what is
essentially a logic gate that opens or remains closed to control the
flow of liquid after each command, according to Sile O’Modhrain, a
professor of performing arts technology who collaborated on the tablet.
Existing refreshable braille displays tend to max out at one line of
text and cost several thousand dollars. They use plastic pins pushed up
and down by a motor. The Michigan team found it impossible to pack the
pins in densely enough to create a reasonably sized full-page display,
and as a result started from scratch with the microfluidic option. The
switch could help them make the final product tablet-sized instead of
laptop-sized, like existing refreshable displays.
The tablet borrows manufacturing techniques from the silicon industry,
where chips are laid down in layers instead of having many small parts
to assemble. As a result, the Michigan team is aiming to offer a braille
tablet for less than $1,000.
“My observation is that, currently, even many of us who read braille
well find reading it with single-line braille displays slower and more
tiring than using text-to-speech or audio materials,” says Chris
Danielsen, a spokesperson for the National Federation of the Blind. “I
think this would dramatically change with a larger display, especially
one at a reasonable price point.”
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As access to text-to-speech software has grown, pressure to learn
braille has dropped. A 2009 report from the National Federation of the
Blind stated that less than 10 percent of blind children were learning
braille at the time, compared to 50 to 60 percent at braille’s height in
the 1960s.
But that doesn’t mean there is no longer a need for the 200-year-old
writing system. Braille books, for example, have long been used to show
the blind textured images. Text-to-speech software can’t convey the same
visual information. However, if there isn’t a book available, people
with visual impairments have to turn to another person to prepare them
materials, which can be expensive.
“Anything where you want to be able to see stuff written down, like
coding or music or even just mathematics, you really have to work in
braille,” says O’Modhrain, who is visually impaired. “That just means
for a lot of people these things are not accessible or not available.”
O’Modhrain believes the team is about a year and a half away from
commercializing the technology, which may be used for an application
other than braille at first. That would drive the cost down for its
later adoption by the blind.
“It would be great to see these getting into school so children can
learn to read math and science materials,” O’Modhrain says.
--
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