Subject: Braille reader article
This Device Translates Text To Braille in Real Time
Team Tactile hopes to create an inexpensive and portable device that can raise
text right off the page
Maya Wei-Haas
The team has developed many different prototypes. Their latest iteration can
display six characters at a time and images the text using an internal camera.
(Lemelson-MIT)
In the wee hours of Valentine's day last year, a team of six women, all MIT
engineering undergraduates, sat exhausted but exhilarated. Their table strewn
with colorful wires, post it notes, food wrappers, scraps of papers, shapes cut
from cardboard. This was no craft project gone awry. The team had just competed
in MakeMITâs hackathonâa competition in which teams of students spend 15
hours designing, coding, constructing, testing and debugging ambitious projects.
The women, competing under the team name 100% Enthusiasm, had set out to tackle
a big challenge: accessibility for the blind. Their idea: a portable,
inexpensive device that could scan text and convert it to braille in real time.
It was something with potential to transform the lives of some of the 1.3
million Americanswho are legally blind.
This first iteration was rough. Nearly the size of an adultâs hand, the
mechanics of the device were sandwiched between two panes of plasticâwires
and circuit boards exposed. Six pins poked up through the top of the device to
display a single braille character (letter, number or punctuation mark). It
imaged each character of text using an external computerâs webcam, rather
than an internal camera as the team had hoped, explains Chen âBonnieâ Wang,
one of the team members who is currently a senior majoring in material science
and engineering. It was slow and not particularly portable. But it worked,
translating text to braille. Team 100% Enthusiasm won.
At the MakeMIT hackathon, the team initially constructed a rough prototype with
a cardboard frame before 3D printing the pins and laser cutting the acrylic
panels. (Lemelson-MIT)
The win was just the beginning of their work with the device, which they dubbed
Tactile. Now, many prototypes later, the team has received another accolade.
Tactile is one of nine winners for this yearâs Lemelson-MIT Student Prize,
which celebrates the translation of âideas into inventions that improve the
world in which we live,â according to the contestâs website. The winning
inventionsâa folding electric drone, proteins to fight superbugs, and a
solar-powered desalination system for off-grid water production, to name a
fewâtackle a wide range of problems.
âWe were super honored to be chosen as one of the winners of the award,â
says Wang. The title came with a $10,000 prize that they are hoping to put back
into the project to continue to improve how the device works.
The teamâs latest prototype, about the size of a candy bar, can display six
characters at a time (the average English word is roughly five characters long)
and has a built in camera. Users can place it down on a line of text and with a
push of a button, the device takes an image. Optical character recognition then
takes over, identifying the characters on the page using Microsoftâs Computer
Vision API. Then the teamâs software translates each character into braille
and subsequently triggers the mechanical system in the box to raise and lower
the pins. They have applied for a patent for the integration of the system
through Microsoftâs #MakeWhatsNext patent program, which supports women
inventors.
âCurrently the camera only takes a picture of its field of view,â Chandani
Doshi, one of the team members who is majoring in electrical engineering and
computer science, explains via email. âWe are aiming to make the device
similar to a handheld scanner that allows the user to scan the entire page in
one go.â The idea is to make it as easy as possible to operate, preventing
the user from needing to keep track of where they are on the page.
Team Tactile is composed of six MIT senior engineering undergraduatesâChen
Wang, Chandani Doshi, Grace Li, Jessica Shi, Charlene Xia and Tania Yuâwho
all wanted to make a difference in the world. (Brian Smale, Microsoft)
Though this is not the first real-time text to braille device, most products
are based on digital text, like ebooks or pdfsâand they are extremely
expensive. For example, the HumanWare Brailliant can connect to mobile devices
and computers, allowing the user to type on the six-keyed braille keyboard and
read using the one-line display of 32 characters. Prices for the device start
at over $2,500. Also popular are whatâs known as braille note-takers. These
are like mini-computers, allowing word processing, the use of excel and
powerpoint, and internet browsing. But these, too, retail in the thousands.
And a lot of text is not readily available in electronic formatâmenus,
brochures, receipts, business cards, class handouts and more. Tactile would
raise the text of these inaccessible documents right off the page. The team
hopes to eventually sell the device for a maximum cost of $200.
One of the many challenges in development, however, is figuring out a better
way to raise and lower the pins. In similar devices on the market, this has
long been done using piezoelectronicsâan expensive method that harnesses the
properties of crystal structures. The team hopes to use microfluidics
(differences in either liquid or air pressure) or electromagnetism
(interactions of electric currents and magnetic fields) to move the pins. They
are now testing both systems to figure out which is the least expensive, but
most responsive and shrinkable for their final prototype.
Ultimately the team hopes that the final product will be slightly smaller than
their current prototype and display two lines of 18 characters each. They hope
to get it to market within two years.
âThis opens up the world, really. What limitation is there if you have a
device that would transcribe any document into braille?â the teamâs adviser
Paul Parravano, who has been visually impaired since he was three, inquires in
a video about the device. âSuddenly the library is open.â
The question, however, is how many people will be waiting and ready to read the
library. A commonly cited statistic is that less than 10 percent of people who
are legally blind can actually read braille. Many people prefer to use
text-to-speech technology and other audio-based programs, says Marion Hersh, a
researcher who specializes in assistive technology at the University of
Glasgow. Braille is challenging to learn and given the option, she says, many
instead choose audio or even magnification (if they have limited eyesight).
It is important to note, however, that the braille literacy numbers are based
on an outdated mode of measurement: supply of braille books from American
Printing House for the Blind, explains Ike Presley, National Project Manager
for the American Foundation for the Blind. âWe definitely want to stifle that
misconception that braille is dead and technology is putting braille out of
business,â he says. âIf anything, technology is making braille more
accessible.â
The team has received feedback on each iteration of Tactile from their adviser
Paul Parravano, who has been visually impaired since he was three.
The women of team Tactile are well aware of the statistic, but believe that
part of the problem is the lack of inexpensive devices to make braille more
available. The market for such devices is small, so few companies venture in
with innovative ideas. âWe don't have a Microsoft or an Apple ... the tech
companies that make the tools for people who are blind or visually impaired are
relatively small,â says Presley.
This means less competition, less innovation and higher prices. âIt really
drives up the cost, which limits access to braille even more. It's just a bad
cycle,â says Wang.
âWhether this could encourage people who donât already know braille to use
it is open to questions,â says Hersh. But she notes that any new
accessibility technology that combines low cost with ease of use could be
extremely helpful in the market.
Learning braille means literacy for the blind community, says Presley, who
helps train service providers so they can more effectively work with the
visually impaired. Audio systems donât provide the same understanding of
language. âAuditory is great...but it doesnât give you the literacy,â he
says. âWhen you listen to [text read aloud], you don't know how to spell the
words, you don't see the grammar, you don't see how text is formatted ...But
when you read it in braille, you do.â
Studies also suggest that braille literacy increases both likelihood of being
employed and an overall higher earnings potential for the blind and visually
impairedâa group that has historically suffered high rates of unemployment.
These factors have only made team Tactile more determined to keep working on
their product. All six engineers will graduate this June. But that isnât
going to slow them down. Three plan to continue working on Tactile, says Wang,
and the others will continue part time.
âThese women are on a great path, and as young as they are, if they can
devote the next 20 years of their career to this, wow,â says Presley.
âThere's no telling what they might come up with.â
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