CCNY-led team receives $330,000 from NSF to develop "Dynamic Tactile
   Interface" for visually impaired users 
From: CCNY - 11/07/2007
By: Ellis Simon

A team of researchers from five institutions, led by The City College of New
York (CCNY), has been awarded $330,000 over three years from the National
Science Foundation (NSF) to develop a tactile surface that can facilitate
communication between visually impaired and blind persons and computers. 

...

The project is "A Dynamic Tactile Interface for Visually Impaired and Blind
People." It proposes to use an electronically addressable and deformable
polymeric film to develop the interface device.  

The interface will consist of three layers: The bottom layer will be a touch
screen connected to a computer for audio feedback to communicate the position
touched on the screen. The middle layer will have embedded isolated
electrodes to address segments of the polymer top layer. The top layer will
consist of an electro-active polymer film covered with a thin gold film.
Segments of the top layer can extend out from the surface as voltage is
applied from the corresponding electrode in the middle layer. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www1.ccny.cuny.edu/advancement/pr/CCNY-LED-TEAM-RECEIVES-330000-FROM-NSF-TO-DEVELOP-DYNAMIC-TACTILE-INTERFACE.cfm

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CCNY-Led Team Receives $330,000 From NSF to Develop ‘Dynamic Tactile
   Interface' for Visually Impaired Computer Users 
From: City College of New York - 11/07/2007
By: Ellis Simon

The National Science Foundation has awarded a team of researchers from five
institutions $330,000 over three years to develop a tactile surface that will
allow the visually impaired to control computers. Currently, visually
impaired and blind computer users are limited to Braille keyboards that cost
several thousand dollars and can only process text. "We're trying to make a
cheaper device that would receive information tactilely and also be able to
receive graphic information," says Ilona Kretzschmar, assistant professor of
chemical engineering at the City College of New York, which is leading the
project. The project, titled "A Dynamic Tactile Interface for Visually
Impaired and Blind People," aims to use an electronically addressable and
deformable polymeric film to develop the interface device. The device will be
made with three layers. The bottom will have a touch screen connected to the
computer with audio feedback to tell users where they touched the screen. The
middle layer will have embedded isolated electrodes to address segments of
the polymer top layer, which will have an electro-active polymer film covered
by a thin gold film. "In a world that increasingly depends on graphical,
pictorial and multimedia technology, visually impaired and blind people have
struggled to keep up," Kretzschmar says. "If we can develop a viable dynamic
tactile interface that allows graphic and pictorial information to be
presented in real time in tactile rather than visual space, the amount of
information available to visually impaired and blind individuals will
increase dramatically." The researchers expect to have a prototype tablet
build by the end of the third year of the project.

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'Haptics' display sought to bring graphics to the blind
From: EE Times - 11/15/2007
By: R. Colin Johnson

The EE who co-invented the electret microphone was recently recruited to help
create the world's first graphical "haptic" display for the blind. James
West, an electrical engineer, was awarded America's highest honor - the
National Medal of Technology - for his work on the electret's charged polymer
film that converts motion into an electrical signal. 

For the National Science Foundation funded haptic-display project, West wants
to turn this concept around, by sending signals to an electro-active polymer
that responds with motion on its surface. The researchers hope their efforts
will result in a display of graphical patterns for the blind to feel with
their hands. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.eetimes.com/rss/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=203100808&cid=RSSfeed_eetimes_newsRSS