Braille smartphone lets users 'touch' the Internet

An Indian startup is working on a smartphone with a special touch screen that can convert text into Braille patterns that visually impaired users can understand.

 

The key to the new device is a special touch screen that can convert text into Braille patterns that blind users can understand, the Times of India reported.

 

"We have created the world's first Braille smartphone. This product is based on an innovative 'touch screen' which is capable of elevating and depressing the contents it receives to transform them into 'touchable' patterns," said inventor Sumit Dagar, whose company is being incubated at the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, at the Indian Institute of Management's Ahmedabad campus.

 

Dagar, a post-graduate from the National Institute of Design (NID), is working with IIT Delhi on making the prototype.

 

The prototype is currently being tested at L V Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, the Times of India report said.

 

He added the device is more a "companion" than a telephone to the user.

 

Shape memory alloy

 

The smartphone's touch screen uses Shape Memory Alloy technology, based on the concept that metals remember their original shapes.

 

It has a grid of pins that can elevate or depress to form Braille patterns.

 

Dagar started the project in 2010 while studying interaction designing at NID, but gave up his job to concentrate on this technology.

 

He formed a six-member team and started his venture, Kriyate Design Solutions. — TJD, GMA News