The “industry standard” modules used in digital braille displays are custom piezoelectric devices, costing around $100 per “letter,” making such displays impractically expensive for most applications.
I just learned about this hackaday prize winner, who has designed digital, refreshable #braille modules that cost less than $1 each, using teeny-tiny magnets and 3D printed parts.
@cmdrmoto Sadly there's been many similar things like this over the years, and none of them really go anywhere, apart from the Orbit Reader from Orbit Research. I'm not sure how that works exactly but a 20 cell display is I think £400.
@cmdrmoto Honestly I really do hope this new thing proves me wrong and something happens from it. but I've seen several such promises over the last 25 years and I just end up thinking oh not another one.
@cmdrmoto Absolutely,. Another thing that needs to come down is the price of Braille Embossers. They are ridiculously expensive. You're looking at £1500 or thereabouts just for a basic one.
I get that they're probably made to order, but still...
@cmdrmoto@KaraLG84 I can't agree more. I'm using a 32-cell display that was made somewhere around 2005, and has a failed dot 4 in one cell. I scored it for $65 on Ebay, and I'm still happy about it. I always think how no sighted market would stand for such a state if this were monitors and not braille displays. I mean what amazing screen can you get for just $200? Anyway, I truly hope this project goes somewhere.
@cmdrmoto Yeah I believe so. I have one. It's quite slow compared to the regular piezo based ones as it refreshes each character individually. The piezo ones do the whole line at once.
@cmdrmoto Did he win? Awesome! Was following his YouTube-Channel and missed the update.
Especially useful, since the Korean Dot Inc. tablet still does not seem to be publicly available, nor will they be affordable by what little information I could glean.
An affordable physical dot-matrix tech would be super useful and interesting for all sorts of applications beyond braille. I am totally exited for this!
Add comment