Even though computer voice synthesizers talk faster than blind people can read Braille and are far cheaper than Braille displays, there is still a need for Braille displays. Reading allows better understanding of context and keener concentration, especially with complicated documents such as programming code.
Unfortunately, the best Braille displays for computers don't give blind people the sense of scanning a whole page, because they're based on a single row of pins moving up and down to represent letters.
But TiNi Alloy Company of San Leandro, California, under contract from the US Department of Education, has developed a working prototype of a new computer reader for blind people. TiNi mounted an eight-key display on a mouse, which can be moved up and down and back and forth across a base the size of a page. The keys, powered by Nitinol wires, flip quickly up and down to form Braille letters. Nitinol has a temperature-dependent memory: it takes one shape when heated and another when cooled. In the Braille reader, electricity will heat the wires. A consumer model will not be available for several years, according to Michael Bokaie, an engineer at TiNi, who says that while the prototype proves the concept, there's still a lot of work ahead.
Braille computer display retailer Jerry Kuns, himself blind, says the device under development "would be wonderful. It would give one the sense of scrolling." David Johnson, principle investigator at TiNi, anticipates that the display will cost less than US$100, compared with the thousands for current one-line displays. TiNi Alloy Company: +1 (510) 483 9676, e-mail tini1@holonet.net.
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