This $500 Tablet Brings Words to Blind Users' Fingertips
From: MIT Technology Review - 01/12/2017
By: Rachel Metz

The first of its kind, the device will include a touch screen and 14-line
Braille display.

The Blitab’s Braille display includes 14 rows, each made up of 23 cells with
six dots per cell. Every cell can present one letter of the Braille alphabet.
Underneath the grid are numerous layers of fluids and a special kind of
membrane that the company won’t specifically describe. The company plans to
start selling for about $500 in six months.

The startup's online service converts text you see on the lower touch screen
into Braille; pressing a button on the side of the Blitab prompts a
micro-electromechanical actuator below each hole on the upper Braille display
to push up an itty-bitty bubble. Pressing another button on the side of the
device refreshes the Braille display with the next page of content. A similar
project from University of Michigan researchers aimed at building an
affordable Braille display was shown off in December; it’s still in
development.

Read the entire article at:
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/603336/this-500-tablet-brings-words-to-blind-users-fingertips

Link:
Blitab
http://blitab.com

Related:
In Pursuit of an Affordable Tablet for the Blind
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/545301/in-pursuit-of-an-affordable-tablet-for-the-blind

Refreshable Braille device (with video 3:05)
http://www.engin.umich.edu/college/about/news/stories/2015/december/refreshable-braille-device

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MIT Technology Review - March / April 2017 - page 16

Press a silver button on this device's side, and tiny bumps rise from various
holes in a grid that dominates the top half of the gadget. Sixty-five words
at a time, the Blitab tablet translates text from the Web and other digital
sources into Braille so people who are blind can more easily access anything
from mindless jokes to e-books to political news. Other refreshable Braille
displays on the market tend to cost thousands of dollars and produce just a
few words at a time on one line. The Blitab's Braille display includes 14
rows, each made up of 23 cells with six dots per cell. Underneath the grid
are numerous layers of fluids and a special membrane that pushes up the tiny
bubbles.