"A computer display doesn't have to be something you look at - it can be tactile," says John Roberts, project manager for a digital Braille reader in development at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (www.nist.gov). Connected to a PC, the electromechanical device works with Braille-translation software to convert computer files into palpable text formed by movable pins. The pins can be read by a single stationary finger, the way a stylus reads a record. Smaller and cheaper than existing devices - which can cost as much as $15,000 - the NIST reader is about the size of a soup can and will allow for unheard-of $1,000 price tags, not to mention portability.
Braille characters are formed by the presence or absence of raised dots in a six-space grid. Earlier digital-to-Braille converters depend on tiny actuators beneath each dot of every character, and set one full line of text at a time. It's these hundreds of moving parts that drive up the price and often break down.
NIST's first prototype (on previous page) uses just 12 actuators to set its dots, working two characters at a time. Each of the battery-shaped drivers is connected to a plastic disc, itself connected to 20 wire pins distributed around the rotating wheel of the reader. On command, the actuators raise or lower discs, causing the desired character to appear on the face. The two-character "touchscreen" isn't indicated on this rough mechanical model, but will be evident, and larger, in the finished product, which should hit the market in the next year.
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