Tactile (device)
Low-cost braille translation device from MIT undergraduates.
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Tactile is a real-time text-to-braille translation device under development at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It was conceived by a team of undergraduate students during a 15-hour MIT hackathon. The device is designed to be slid over printed text, capturing words with a camera and translating them into braille via movable pins.
Development
Tactile provides real-time translation of English text into braille on a refreshable display. The end product will show 36 braille characters on a 5 x 2 inch interface, with an intended retail price around US$100. Existing braille displays cost between $1,500 and $2,500, leading to Tactile being described as a potential major advance for the blind community. The team received a $10,000 grant from the MIT IDEAS Global Challenge and was accepted into the Microsoft Patent Program, which provided funding and legal counsel for a U.S. patent application filed on September 16, 2016, currently pending.
Did You Know?
- The six-person development team comprises Chandani Doshi, Grace Li, Jialin Shi, Bonnie Wang, Charlene Xia, and Tania Yu.
- All inventors were undergraduate women in STEM fields at the time of Tactile's conception.
- The team collaborated across materials science, mechanical and electrical engineering, and computer science.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Tactile (device) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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