Technology may be progressing in a way that way that makes everyday tasks convenient for every one of us, whether it¡¯s ordering food, paying bills, or even reading a book. But one group of people is largely overlooked by the advancement of technology, namely those suffering some form of blindness. Now, a group of MIT undergraduates are hoping to remedy that situation with a project they call ¡®Tactile¡¯.
Team Tactile
Tactile is, in short, a portable scanner that can translate text to braille on the fly. More importantly, it¡¯s a device a blind person can carry around in their pocket and use without having to worry about moving parts and the like.?
The brains behind the project are six female undergraduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Jialin Shi, Charlene Xia,Grace Li, Tania Yu, Chandani Doshi, and Bonnie Wang. The six won a $10,000 grant from MIT¡¯s IDEAS Global Challenge in 2015, when they unveiled their first prototype for the device (a bulky affair with exposed wires and circuits). The Tactile team continued working closely with partners and prospective users to refine the concept and eventually ended up with the device they have ready today.
Tactile calls itself the first portable real-time text to Braille converter, and it is. Paul Parravano, Co-director of Government and Community Relations at MIT, who advised the girls during the development stages, says Braille displays currently available in the market are not up to the mark. Not only do they cost upwards of $1,500, but at that price point they can¡¯t even scan and render printed documents as Braille.
Tactile is a device about the size of a candy bar, and uses an internal camera to image printed text as it¡¯s panned down the page. Those images are sent to a microcontroller, which uses text recognition software to parse it as actual words and then translates it into Braille. On the opposite face of the device is a set of 216 ¡°dots¡±, which can be pushed up and down via electromagnetic mechanisms. These are then used to instantaneously display the scanned text as Braille dots.
The team¡¯s innovation is outstanding for more than one reason. Firstly, the device is easy to carry around, and can be used to read a variety of things a blind person wouldn¡¯t normally be able to, like expiry dates on food packaging, or sensitive bank documents. Additionally, the girls may not have yet set a price point, but they believe they can manufacture Tactile for as low as $100. The device¡¯s design and simplicity enables them to use cheaper parts, thereby significantly bringing down the overall cost of the product, and making it more accessible to the people who need it.