MALAK GAROOT GRAPHIC AND MEDIA DESIGNER
Media Design Practices
Lab track
Touchscreen Braille Writer
“As technology and electronic interactive services become a larger part of our everyday living, these groups risk severe social exclusion as a consequence of the myriad of technical barriers they face when using the Internet” (Valdes, L, 2003) “When I turned six, I learned about the magic of Braille. All of a sudden words like cat and dog, that people kept spelling for me, actually made sense. No longer was I simply memorizing strings of letters to make words. I learned what the
letters c, a, and t felt like beneath my fingers. It was wonderful to read and write; my only sadness was that my parents did not understand what I wrote for them, and I could not read anything they wrote for me.” - Gary Wunder
It all started when Louis Braille wrote the braille system in 1825. Visually impaired people were finally able to read and understand important concepts through those six magical dots. Yet, since the beginning of the twentieth century,
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technology became an essential part of our daily lives. Although, the braille and speech output note takers evolved so much since their invention to address the needs of its users, those devices were mainly specialized laptops with limited functionality, which are also extremely expensive. Even with all the distinct forms of pointing devices, voice recognition and disabledfriendly input devices on a regular computer, blind users are still required to shift gears from a device to another to get things done. “As technology and electronic interactive services become a larger part of our everyday living, these groups risk severe social exclusion as a consequence of the myriad of technical barriers they face when using the Internet” (Valdes, L, 2003). Plus, today we have devices that use touch-screen
technology; if one can’t see the menus, wouldn’t it be impossible to operate these devices without sighted assistance? Yet the question is, is there a way to allow visually impaired people to use “buttonless” smart phones and tablets as their visual peers? Would it be possible to create virtual keys on a completely smooth glass panel? The answer is, yes! Adam Duran’s application that made the lives of those who cannot see both easier and less expensive. His application would turn a tablet into a Braille writer and thus saves the blind individual from having to get another device that could cost him/her up to ten times more than a tablet. This designed system in which the keys find the fingers instead of asking the person to navigate to the keyboard layout.
“Imagine being blind in a classroom, how would you take notes?” said Lew. “What if you were on the street and needed to copy down a phone number? These are real challenges the blind grapple with every day.”
The user simply touches eight fingertips anywhere on the glass, and the program would relocate the keys to match where the fingers are resting. Also, the application is fully customizable and it accommodates various finger sizes and shapes. The app menu can be accessed by shaking the device and navigated by dragging a finger across the screen. In case the user loses his or her orientation to the keys, simply lifting all fingers from the screen for a moment and then touching all eight fingers again re-calibrates the keys to the fingers. “I dreamed that one day I could write on my Perkins Brailler and have my words translated into print. I dreamed, too, of a device--its size and shape unknown--that would put into Braille everything my family wrote to me.” - Gary Wunder
Media Design Practices
Braille Eboard
FEEL IT LIKE YOU
SEE IT
THE CAT SAID, “MEOW“
Lab track
Although I find that this application somehow enables blind individuals to use smart phones and tablets like everybody else, I still find it limiting. Surely the visually disabled can now access the web and listen to the movie instead of seeing it, but how would a blind person feel an image on a glass surface? This question along with the huge breakout of kindle in 2010 inspired me to design an interactive 3D computer ‘Breaille Eboard’.
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This Eboard can make computing a viable option for users with weak or lost vision. Not only it would provide audio information and voice command, when the user presses the dots on the device, but it would also simplify modern technology and make images feel as real as possible. Eboard has a flat surface like a tablet, which allows the user to fully interact with it by touching and manipulating the surface of the device. The surface of the device
contains an electronic active layer of grid with movable 3D dots that are driven by electromagnetic signals to take different physical shapes and to change vigorously along with the application. This would allow users to read Braille text and to feel an image with different levels of embossed dots that gives a sense of depth to the image.
3D dots layer
Soft touch screen
Easily fit in a purse Light to carry around