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Braille eReader | |||||||||||||||||
I have recently seen some concept models of e-Readers for the visually impaired, that are more or less identical in format to say the Kindle, in that they want to mimic a page in a book.Without any experience in even trying to learn Braille, I instantly thought about the following concept: Why not make a scrolling Braille-strip where the text would run under your fingers instead of your fingers running over text?It would save a lot of space, so the unit could be a lot more portable/pocketable.On the downside there would obviously be the bigger power consumption (since a whole page reader only uses power to "flip" to the next page).Also, as I cannot ever read Braille myself it's impossible to comment on the ergonomics and the "touch" of the scrolling dots as compared to moving your fingers over stationary dots...If the difference is as big as it is between reading a text by moving your eyes and reading a scrolling text with your eyes, this idea is DOA.All comments appreciated!
Micke, Apr 21 2009
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I don't read braille so my comment may be way off, but braille consists of letters formed by a compact pattern of dots and the letter pattern is in a small area. A small square the size of a fingertip could contain the proper number of pins which could raise and fall from signals sent from a reader so the size of the reader would be something like the end of a pen.
One problem with a scrolling Braille reader would be that it forces you to read at the speed that it scrolls. A visual scrolling reader has the same drawback. It's much easier to read at your own pace. If it scrolls too slow you have to wait on it, but if you speed it up you miss stuff. On a page, if you miss something you can simply go back over it. But with a scoller, you would have to stop it and back it up, which is far less convenient.
OTOH, this might be useful for situations in which you can't carry anything larger. But a full size reader would always be better when available.