The project proposed by Tactile Display Corporation (TDC) supports the NIH/NEI mission to develop devices to aid the blind. A blind student has 2 hurdles to overcome when reading with today's refreshable braille display (RBD): the inability to read more than one line at a time because these devices only display a single line of text, and, the inability to read school materials because until recently there's been no way to get books into the proper file format for RBD display. TDC's project has 2 long-term objectives that will overcome these hurdles: (1) development of a multi-line refreshable braille display (MRBD) able to display properly formatted text, charts and tables, and, (2) development of software to convert textbooks and display them on an MRBD. The specific aims to achieve objective (1) are to complete the development of the components for TDC's braille display module (BDM). The BDM will be the basic building-block for an MRBD. The project's research design includes creation of 3D computer models for all MRBD components, production of prototype parts using Computer Numeric Control (CNC) technology, manufacture of engineering prototypes, and reviews by focus groups. On July 19, 2006 the U. S. Department of Education adopted a National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) for schoolbooks. To achieve objective (2), TDC has formed an alliance with Computer Application Specialties Company (CASC) to jointly develop NIMAS conversion and display software for an MRBD. With this software, an MRBD will provide blind students access to properly formatted NIMAS textbooks in braille in all subjects. Realization of these objectives will offer blind Americans several
Benefits: affordable MRBD devices ($1.00 per braille dot instead of $18.75), access to tabulated materials, full-page braille book readers and most importantly, parity with sighted peers.
Public Health Relevance: The multi-line refreshable braille display (MRBD) proposed by Tactile Display Corporation (TDC) supports the NIH/NEI mission to develop devices to aid the blind. Development of an affordable MRBD ($1.00 per braille dot instead of $18.75) will offer blind Americans several
Benefits: access to tabulated materials, full-page braille book readers and most importantly, parity with sighted peers.
Public Health Relevance Statement: The multi-line refreshable braille display (MRBD) proposed by Tactile Display Corporation (TDC) supports the NIH/NEI mission to develop devices to aid the blind. Development of an affordable MRBD ($1.00 per braille dot instead of $18.75) will offer blind Americans several
Benefits: access to tabulated materials, full-page braille book readers, and, most importantly, parity with sighted peers.
Project Terms: Adopted; Aid to the Blind; American; Architecture; Books; Braille Display; Cells; Charts and Tables; Computer Programs; Computer Simulation; Computer software; Computerized Models; Computers; Development; Devices; Education; Educational aspects; Elastomers; Electromagnetic; Electromagnetics; Engineering; Engineering / Architecture; Engineerings; Focus Groups; Goals; Housing; Individual; Industry; Legal patent; Logic; Mathematical Model Simulation; Mathematical Models and Simulations; Mechanics; Medical Specialities; Mission; Models, Computer; Output; Patents; Phase; Plastics; Problem Solving; Production; Reader; Reading; Research Design; SBIR; SBIRS (R43/44); Schools; Sight; Simulation, Computer based; Small Business Innovation Research; Small Business Innovation Research Grant; Software; Solid; Specialties, Medical; Specialty; Students; Study Section; Study Type; Surface; TXT; Tactile; Technology; Text; Textbooks; Time; Vendor; Vision; Work; base; blind; braille; commercial application; computational modeling; computational models; computational simulation; computer based models; computer program/software; computerized modeling; computerized simulation; cost; develop software; developing computer software; file format; in silico; innovate; innovation; innovative; medical specialties; parity; peer; portability; prototype; public health relevance; software development; study design; tactile display; technological innovation; virtual simulation
