Georgia Tech Develops Braille-Like Texting App From: Georgia Tech News - 02/17/2012 By: Michaelanne Dye Georgia Tech researchers have developed BrailleTouch, an iPhone application based on the Braille writing system that could enable people to text without looking at the device's screen. "Research has shown that chorded, or gesture-based, texting is a viable solution for eyes-free written communication in the future, making obsolete the need for users to look at their devices while inputting text on them," says Georgia Tech's Mario Romero. During testing, BrailleTouch users entered up to 32 words a minute with 92 percent accuracy. "We are currently designing a study to formally evaluate BrailleTouch through both quantitative and qualitative methods," says Georgia Tech graduate student Caleb Southern. "We will measure the typing speed and accuracy of visually impaired users and capture the feedback from study participants in areas such as comfort, ease of use, and perceived value." The researchers also are exploring how BrailleTouch could be used with a universal eyes-free mobile texting app that replaces soft QWERTY keyboards and other texting technologies for sighted users. The researchers designed BrailleTouch to overcome the limitations of soft keyboards, which do not provide tactile feedback, as well as physical keyboards, which often use small and numerous fixed buttons. Read the entire article at: http://www.gatech.edu/newsroom/release.html?nid=110051 Links: BrailleTouch: Touchscreen Typing App for the Visually Impaired (with 1:40 video) http://medgadget.com/2012/02/brailletouch-touchscreen-typing-app-for-the-visually-impaired.html Mario Romero http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~mromero/ Caleb Southern http://calebsouthern.com/ BrailleTouch: Mobile Texting for the Visually Impaired http://calebsouthern.com/papers/frey_southern_romero_2011.pdf BrailleTouch: Designing a Mobile Eyes-Free Soft Keyboard http://calebsouthern.com/papers/romero_frey_southern_abowd_2011.pdf