Full Screen Braille Displays in the Works

Up until now braille displays have typically only showed one line of text at a time. Researchers at North Carolina State University however are working on a technology that could enable full-page braille displays. They have developed a concept called a “hydraulic and latching mechanism,” which allows to raise dots to the correct height after which a latching mechanism would support the weight being applied by a person’s fingers as the dots are read. A proof-of-concept structure has achieved the necessary volumetric change required to lift a Braille dot over 0.5mm at speeds under 100ms. The mechanism would be made of an electroactive polymer that is very resilient and inexpensive, and the material responds quickly, allowing a reader to scroll through a document or Web site quickly. It even could translate images into tactile displays, effectively mapping pixels in an image and allowing the full-page Braille display to represent the images as raised dots. This could be a big step giving the blind better access to things such as Internet and other computer resources.
Full statement from North Carolina State University : Electroactive Polymer Design Opens Door To ‘Full Screen’ Displays For The Blind…