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Is it really necessary to learn Braille?  That is a question that has arisen in many conversations with those who are blind, or visually impaired.  You have your hard core Braille users who will not use anything else, then you have those who switch from technology to Braille, and from Braille to technology in a heartbeat.

Braille, just like reading print is a fundamental part of the entire learning process.  It is a form of communication that when all else fales, you can definitely rely upon it.  You see, the majority of blind and visually impaired people in the United States are all too familiar with the use of technology both in their working environments and schooling environments.

There has been a massive push towards using technology over using traditional Braille.  Now this isn’t to say that you can’t have the best of both worlds.  That is; you can get the feel of real Braille through the use of refreshable Braille display technology.

Imagine for a moment sitting in front of you is not a traditional Braille book, but rather, a tablet sized device that is the exact same dementions as a Braille book, but without all of the bulkyness, and number of volumes that it takes to produce a single copy of a printed book in Braille.

Your tablet device would have a refreshable Braille display that covers the entire surface of the device, not just a line or two like you find in most traditional Braille displays today.  So in essence, you could actually read digitized Braille exactly the same way that you would sit and read a traditional Braille book.  That is; your hands will feel all of the Braille that is on the page, thus giving you the look and feel of a real Braille book, but without all of the bulkyness that normally comes with more traditional Braille books.

Being able to actually, and physically search for information on the page with your fingers is the holy grale of blind readers.  However, technology hasn’t allowed for this to happen with traditional Braille display technologies.

The below summary is an update on a new piece of technology that may make full page Braille displays actually possible.

Full page Braille displays possible with artificial muscles?
{SUMMARY}

Researchers
are reported
to have developed the technology for an active, full page Braille display. Most of the commonly available Braille displays use a single line of 40, 65 or
80 Braille cells (3×2 patterns of dots) that work by mechanically raising a pin through a hole to represent each dot. Blind readers scan the text by swiping
their fingers across the row of cells, sensing the individual patterns as the letters that form words, and then refreshing the row as each line has been
read. These machines are expensive and have little direct relationship with modern computer displays, although they function well for services similar
to instant messaging.

Electromechanical systems for full page Braille displays (40 cells by 25 lines) would be very expensive, as the technology must be extremely robust and
reliable. The new system uses electroactive polymers (EAPs) to create the dots. These polymers deform when a voltage is applied across them, leading some
to refer to them as ‘artificial muscles’. In the Braille application, a sheet made from a dielectric elastomer is printed on both sides with a pattern
of electrodes; when a voltage is applied between a selected pair of electrodes, the EAP sheet deforms, causing a bump to be raised, which is then released
when the voltage is removed. Due to basing production on sheet technology, rather than individual mechanical actuators, the new display has potential to
be much cheaper, as well as being able to represent more graphical information by using the whole page. Systems based on EAPs could also be used to underpin
haptic (tactile) feedback mechanisms for other applications.

End of summary

By using electroactive polymers, it may be possible to actually develop a full sized tablet device that has a few buttons for page navigation.  This new Braille tablet would consist of a 25 line full page display, with a few buttons at the bottom of the unit for navigational purposes.

The buttons would be home, end, skip one page back, skip one page forward, skip 3 pages back, skip three pages forward; just to name a few.

The user would brush his, or her  hands across the entire surface of the page much like they did with a more traditional Braille book.  The device would use SD cards for the file storage, or have the ability to utilize the services of external hard drives and flash drives in which to read from

The device would have some sort of file navigation system so that the users could switch from one file to another stored on the SD card, or USB device.  However, the main feature being that there is a complete full page  Braille display at their fingertips in which they can have full access to at any time.

What this means for the reader is that they can carry with them, entire books stored on removable media, and have normal access to them as if they were traditional printed Braille books, but without all of the bulkyness that normally accompanies traditionally printed Braille books.

A tablet type device could revolutionize Braille reading, and even re kindle the interest in learning Braille all over again, thus, bringing Braille back to the forefront of reading for the blind.  So yes, the blind can have their braille along with their technology too!

A full page refreshable Braille display tablet would definitely be the holy grale for the blind because it would mean that they could read normally, instead of reading in an awkward mannor such as currently being done with traditional current Braille displays.  However, here’s another reason for developing a full page refreshable Braille display, and it has to do with full sentence, paragraph and page structuring in Braille.  As many of you already know, Braille does not look the same way as print does on a page. This would give blind professionals ans students a real advantage over traditional electronic Braille reading because for the very first time, electronics can accurately immulate the printed world in Braille.

However, here’s yet another really great reason to promote such a device, and it has to do with the fact that plain text information written by someone who doesn’t know Braille at all could be read in grade 1, or grade 2 Braille by the individual using the Braille reading tablet device.  The translation from plain text into grade 1, or grade 2 Braille would be instantanious, thus reducing the need for expensive Braille embossers that produce traditional Braille books.

This could be a huge boost for textbook producers because they would not have to rely upon other third party companies and organizations to translate their works into Braille for the blind.  Not only that, but because the device could handle plain, ordinary text means that for the first time, any material, whether it is currently in Braille or not can now be instantly translated into Braille on the tablet device.  Talk about cost savings here!

Well, we’ll just have to wait and see what Braille display technology brings us, so don’t give up on it.

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