A Hardware Based Braille Note Taker (original) (raw)

Design of an External USB Braille Keyboard for Computers

Central Asian Journal of Theoretical and Applied Science, 2022

Last 20 years, billions of people around the world are widely using digital devices. In this information technology age, it is difficult to imagine our life without digital devices including computers. Computers play an important role in the lives of visually impaired people. These devices help them with electronic tasks such as writing mailing messages, and word processing tasks. Computers based on modern technologies for blind people are available worldwide. Computers have a specially designed external USB Braille keyboard with large six dots that help blind people type SMS messages easily and quickly. This paper proposes a low-cost external USB Braille keyboard for computers which is designed to help blind and visually impaired people type quick messages. This device is beneficial through its innovative concept, its simplicity, and its availability at an affordable cost.

Design of Text-to-Braille Digitized Device based on Android and Arduino Uno with Remote Module

IRJET, 2022

The objective is to utilize Arduino to make a Text to Braille Converter. The current adaptation considers Braille for the English language. There are two sorts of Braille frameworks: static and dynamic. A set plan for addressing the English 26 letters requires static braille spots of 3x2 lattice measurement. The characters are punched as dabs on paper or metal blocks. To understand reports, a static Braille system needs a large number of archives to be transmitted. This weight is reduced by using a strong braille structure. Braille is a physical system for addressing text. A Braille book is made up of a few braille cells, each of which addresses a letter in order or photograph. A single cell is made up of six distinct spots. A mixture of these pins lifted high and low frames a letter in the sequence. Many languages have a standard braille code for each letter in the alphabet. Writings are typically emblazoned on material, and visually impaired people brush their fingertips over the dabs to read the content. Because of mechanical advancements in various fields of study, Braille engineering is advancing at a rapid pace. Several languages, including English, French, and Spanish, can be written and read using Braille code. The idea is for the client's fingertips to be placed on the cell, causing cell pins to reproduce, rubbing a finger over cells.

Design and Implementation of Digital Braille System for The Visually Impaired

According to World Health Organization (WHO), there are approximately 2.2 billion people who are visually impaired in the world (Oct, 2019). Braille is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired and is typically written on embossed paper. Reading is the most important form of learning. According to Varao Sousa [11] , reading reduces mind wandering and increases understanding. For visually impaired people, reading refers to braille reading through touch. In this digital age, where everything is done online, the visually impaired have a hard time trying to access digital content or read electronic documents. Digital braille or electronic braille is a way in which the visually impaired can access information using electronic braille displays where the digital content on screen is converted into braille and is made available for use. Many electronic braille systems are printed onto paper and this form of braille is susceptible to wear and tear. Most electronic braille systems used are very expensive especially in developing countries such as India. Hence, we are proposing a digital braille system that is affordable and easy to use. The digital braille system designed converts digital text from documents to braille using python script. The system is driven by electromagnetic push-pull solenoids connected to an Arduino Uno board. The vertical movements of the solenoids represent the braille characters. Each character is read and the corresponding dots representing the character in the braille alphabet is displayed. The system can also be a handy tool for teaching and training the visually impaired people.

New user interface using a single Braille cell approach

Informática na educação: teoria & prática, 2017

Access to information is usually a challenge for visually impaired people. Auditory and the Braille systems become an ally for them, allowing access to knowledge, identification of products and places, among others uses. However, technologies for printing and reading in Braille are expensive, constraining its dissemination and use. This work presents a Braille reading system, based on a single cell' approach, designed for computer interactions. The single Braille cell concept is closely related to fingertip's physiology and it is based on a static reading. The designed computer interface took into account accessibility standards preconized by IBM. The system features voice recognition, auditory feedback and provides two operation modules: training and reading. The system was evaluated by three blind participants with different kinds of Braille' knowledge and different computer's skills. The results promises an efficient way to learn Braille using the single Braille cell concept.

An Innovative Braille System Keyboard for the Visually Impaired

2009

A keyboard is specially designed and constructed to provide easy typing technology for the visually impaired. There are totally 6 logical sensing switches that are used for acquiring the characters. The whole keyboard works based on Braille system. There are also five other specially used switches like SHIFT (Number Alphabet toggle button), SPACE, BACK SENSE, CAPS LOCK and SPEAK. This keyboard is a device made of logical switches and uses Braille system technique for sensing the characters. In this system, the sensors are aligned according to the Braille language i.e. alphabets or numeric/special characters. The main advantage of this project is that the visually impaired do not need any training since most of them are already specialized in Braille language. This keyboard is interfaced with a computer in a similar way to that of the primary keyboards that are available.

A PC-based Braille library system for the sightless

IEEE transactions on rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 1998

This paper presents a novel multiclient braille reading system developed around a single low cost personal computer. The system primarily addresses the needs of the Braille libraries, where different texts are needed to be read by different users simultaneously. Moreover, the system can simultaneously cater to different texts written in different languages. This feature makes it specially suitable for use by multilingual nationalities. The major advantage of this system is its low cost, compared to the other systems available and is specially attractive for the developing or underdeveloped countries. The paper describes the system, first from the user point of view and then presents the hardware and software design details. The system performance has been evaluated by the sightless users and has shown encouraging results.

Pocket Braille Keyboard – Reader using Braille Back Service

Journal of Student Research, 2017

Major disadvantage of Existing Braille Keyboard is the Cost which is greater than 3500$ and size more than 15 cm. Out of 285 million visually impaired people, not many are able to afford it and it’s hefty to carry around. This project presents the making of Pocket Braille Keyboard-Reader of less cost, around 100$, and more compact in size. Principle technologies used are capacitive touch sensing and MEMs (Micro-Electrical Mechanical systems) for typing and reading respectively, which will be assisting the visually impaired people to interact with the world. Ex: Reading and typing in Braille Language, interacting with SMART phone with NAVIGATION keys on the Keyboard.

Brindle: A Braille Compatible Display Screen

The Brindle is a prototype for an electronic book that uses linear actuators to provide a refreshable 'Braille' display. The prototype makes use of simple solenoids and a microcomputer to control the up and down motion of the mechanical pins. A program will first convert the given English text into a Braille format, each character being made up of a combination of six dots (pins). According to the Braille character solenoids are activated or neglected, thus moving the pins up or down appropriately. This movement is controlled by yet another program. The matrix of pins will be covered with a polymeric layer for protection. The user is also provided with two buttons; to go to the previous page or next page as and when they wish. The screen then gets refreshed accordingly. As a result the visually impaired too can read their favorite book on the go.

IJCTA July-August 2014_Embedded_Optical_Braille_Recognition_on.pdf

Optical Braille recognition is used to digitize and reproduce texts that have been produced with noncomputerized systems, such as with Braille typewriters. Digitizing Braille texts also helps reduce storage space, as Braille texts take up much more space than their natural language counterparts. Editing and Reprinting of Braille document that were embossed on paper are time consuming and labour intensive. Optical Braille recognition is also useful for people who cannot read Braille, but need to access the content of Braille documents. This paper is on Methodology of a camera based assistive device that can be used by people to read Braille document. The framework is on implementing image capturing technique in an embedded system based on Raspberry Pi board.

A portable device for optically recognizing Braille - Part II: software development

The Seventh Australian and New Zealand Intelligent Information Systems Conference, 2001, 2001

This article describes the software portion of the research work that developed a prototype portable device for optically scanning embossed Braille and conversion of the scanned text to binary Braille representation. The hardware development was reported in Part I of this paper [8]. An application to convert the literary Braille code to expanded text has also been implemented. The system developed utilises a hand held scanner that captures the embossed Braille image, in real time, via a linear 128pixel CCD array. A Texas Instruments Digital Signal Processor performs recognition processing.