In what could soon be coming as the first of its kind, Humanware
<http://www.humanware.com/> appears to be developing a new braille display
and app for synchronizing notes with iDevices. In late April, an app hit the
App Store called Brilliant Sync.
<https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/brailliant-sync/id1222563863?mt=8>
According to the description by Harpo, the app is designed "for
synchronizing notes between Gmail, IMAP & similar servers & Brilliant 14
Braille devices." This tells us 2 things.
Humanware is working on a newer & smaller device to add to its line-up of
Brilliant displays, and that this new device will have some sort of internal
notetaking capabilities which can then be synced to external accounts
through the iPhone. As of the May 1 app update, the only service that is not
required to be entered manually is a Google account, though many services
such as iCloud & outlook.com also use iMap. A search of the Google Play
Store did not show the same app being available on Android, so this appears
to be an Apple specific feature for now.
Humanware is also the only braille display manufacturer which is re-sold by
Apple. At the moment, you can purchase the 32 cell model of the Brilliant
BI,
<https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HJB42VC/A/humanware-brailliant-bi-32-bra
ille-display> or the 40 cell version,
<https://www.apple.com/shop/product/HJB52VC/A/humanware-brailliant-bi-40-bra
ille-display> directly from Apple. This seems yet another move towards
merging mainstream technology with adaptive technology and could potentially
boost the productivity for braille users in both work & education. While
it's true that the user can utilize the braille display's connection that
has a perkins style keyboard to iOS to input text, it's also true that the
translator used by Apple is rather quirky. Having the ability to not only
synchronize notes with your iDevice, but also with other external services,
will allow the user to write with a more robust translator. It will also
save battery life, as you are not having to maintain a bluetooth connection
to your iDevice while taking notes.
No further information about the Brilliant 12 is available for public
consumption. My guess, and it's only a guess, is that it could be something
Humanware would bring out at the blindness conventions this summer. Harpo is
also no stranger to braille and iOS. They designed MBMimic ,
<https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/mbmimic/id673101268?mt=8> an app which
allows users of the models of the Mountbatten Brailler with bluetooth to
transfer documents to the Mountbatten Brailler to iOS, among other things.
It will be interesting to see what this project yields, and if other
manufacturers of braille devices will also start to support more bridging of
their adaptive technologies with those in the mainstream. As a braille user
myself, I'm glad to see more developments on the braille front with iOS.
With braille on narrator
<https://www.blindbargains.com/bargains.php?m=17077> still requiring a lot
of work, and BrailleBack not seeing any updates in well over a year, it's
encouraging to see development continuing to move forward on at least one
platform.
Submitted by Scott Davert - Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team at:
www.applevis.com
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