A Portable Piezoelectric Tactile Terminal for Braille Readers

• Main Authors: Ramiro Velázquez, Hermes Hernández, Enrique Preza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2012-01-01
• Series: Applied Bionics and Biomechanics
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.3233/ABB-2012-0055

This paper introduces a novel concept on reading assistive technologies for the blind: the TactoBook, a system that is able to translate entire electronic books (eBooks) to Braille code and to reproduce them in portable electronic Braille terminals. The TactoBook consists of a computer-based translator that converts fast and automatically any eBook into Braille. The Braille version of the eBook is then encrypted as a file and stored in a USB memory drive which is later inserted and reproduced in a compact, lightweight, and highly-portable tactile terminal. In particular, this paper presents a piezoelectric ultrasonic actuation approach to design and implement such portable Braille terminal. Actuating mechanism, design concept, first prototype, and performance results are presented and discussed.