[BRLTTY] Technological developments in braille displays
Jason White
jasonw at ariel.its.unimelb.edu.au
Wed Jul 27 07:11:42 EDT 2005
With apologies in advance if this is off topic for the mailing list. If
it is, I'll gladly take it elsewhere.
I have been observing the braille display field over the years and would
be interested to know what other BRLTTY users think. So far, nothing has
emerged to supersede the piezoelectric cell, which is used in most
contemporary braille displays. Alternatives have been proposed and
patented but have a habit of going nowhere in practice. Recent claims by
a U.S. firm, Tactile Dynamics, to have developed a new cell technology
allowing for large multi-line displays sparked interest on another
mailing list to which I'm subscribed; it remains to be seen whether a
viable, mass-produced device will result. There is also a fairly recent
paper by researchers in France discussing the use of shape memory alloys
in the construction of tactile displays, and various other approaches
have been tried historically and documented in papers and, more
frequently, patents. Robotron here in Australia developed an
electro-mechanical braille cell, but as far as I know it has only been
used in a scientifi calculator rather than in general-purpose displays
(I don't know why - perhaps technical or production problems).
Apparently it was less costly to produce than the piezoelectric cell,
while operating at lower electrical power.
Entering the prediction game for a moment, what do you think are the
prospects of one of the various projects currently underway resulting in
something less expensive than, but at least as reliable as, the
piezoelectric cell technology?
The features of braille displays have improved gradually over time, for
example in keeping with newer interface methods such as USB and
wireless. I don't think there is much to say here in general terms,
other than that an impressive plethora of designs has appeared over the
years in portable displays, note-taking devices and desktop systems. At
a personal level I very much like my Inka display. Eventually I will
need something more portable as well, however, as I expect to be
increasingly giving presentations at seminars and conferences,
participating in more meetings, etc., in which environments a portable
display would be very useful.
Two interesting current products from my point of view are the Braillex
Elba from Papenmeier, as it runs Linux, and the Braille Star from
Handytech which tries to be both a braille display and, in a limited
form, a text reading/note taking device. Baum's Vario displays are also
excellent.
Just my thoughts.
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