3 ms·
I think the difference between $500 and $40 won't be liked much in most of the u.s. since people get much more value from a full line braille machine. But i co
by minthd 12y ago
I think the difference between $500 and $40 won't be liked much in most of the u.s. since people get much more value from a full line braille machine. But i could be wrong - but to save yourself a lot of work, maybe it would be easier to ask blind people for their opinion , maybe in (reddit.com/r/blind , or quora) ?
An alternative could be talking with blind people in the third world, maybe this single cell solution would be good enough for them ?
The other option is to really work on basic mechanisms to make the basic cell far cheaper. For example [1] , which uses electrodes and small electric current as the basic sensations(not sure if good idea).
Also , there's a company called senseg doing tactile displays for tablets. Since tablets have quite a large area(and the price of components is highly constrained), and a braille strip could need far less,maybe they could offer a cost competitive solution. And they also have an sdk(and maybe tablets).
[1]http://aac-rerc.psu.edu/wordpressmu/RESNA-SDC/2013/06/19/pandabraille-a-refreshable-electro-tactile-braille-display-with-no-moving-parts-vit-university/ http://aac-rerc.psu.edu/wordpressmu/RESNA-SDC/2013/06/19/pan...
- datashovel 12y agoThanks for the suggestions. I've been thinking about how to approach the blind community with the idea. My feeling right now is I should at least have something to "try out" to give them a sense of what I'm after. As soon as I figure out how to get the "reader" down to a size where I feel good about its usability (doesn't matter too much if wires are sticking out etc.) I just want the actual interface to be an appropriate size. Another thing that is also "pie in the sky" but I think another reason I'm so interested is I think there are alot of applications (some reasonable today, but some that may be pushing the boundaries of what we may think of today). I can imagine (at low enough cost, and by perfecting the mechanics) an entire industry could be born around the idea of "consuming information tactilely". Even for sighted people.
- minthd 12y agoMaybe tactile information could be useful. definetly worth a try. As for small components - maybe wait for the apple watch teardowns ,they'll tell which components have they used for the taptic engine.