Switched has a new home! Huffpost Tech.

Click here to visit the new home of Switched!

Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Braille Display Advances Look, er... Feel Promising for Blind Web Users

by Amar Toor on April 6, 2010 at 01:35 PM

Today, most blind Web surfers rely on Braille screen displays to read online articles. And despite recent advances, it remains a pretty arduous task. Instead of using lights, like most computer screens, Braille displays use electromechanically controlled pins to show information that's been digitally converted into Braille. The converted text then appears onscreen in the form of touchable rectangular cells, arranged side-by-side like dominoes. Each time a user reads the Braille representation by touching it, the pins sticking out of the holes in each cell refresh to bring up a new line of text. The blind consumer, then, remains restricted to reading one line at a time, and is unable to skim through, or backtrack across online content.

Recently, however, researchers at North Carolina State University have begun making serious progress toward the creation of an entirely new form of Braille display. Instead of showing one line at a time, the NC State design allows for translated words and images to be displayed in larger displays, consisting of up to 25 rows of 40 cells. In theory, then, blind readers would be able to go back, review, and jump around within the text.

The one major hurdle to any advancement in Braille technology, though, is cost. Single row models already cost upwards of $1,000 and more complex designs like NC State's would presumably only raise the financial threshold. Much of the cost, as Scientific American explains, stems from the piezoelectric ceramic actuators that are currently used to push out and pull in the pin configurations. In an effort to cut costs and increase energy efficiency, NC State has begun work on a hydraulic model, a problem recognized by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) nearly ten years ago, when it developed an entirely different pin model based on a tire-like design.

Currently, each piezoelectric display costs about $35 per cell, and in order for the displays to be more affordable, experts estimate that they'll have to lower that overhead cost to around $5. The good news is that scientists are definitely working toward a cost efficient solution -- but we shouldn't expect to see it anytime soon. NC State researchers could take up to a year to perfect their display, and would then have to wait another four years or so before their product hits the market. Signs, though, are definitely promising. [From: ScientificAmerican]

Tags: accessibility, blind, braille, BrailleDisplay, disability, nist, North Carolina State University, NorthCarolinaStateUniversity, research, science, screen, top

HuffPost AOL Social News Most Popular