I have been doing some thinking about how to convert a dot matrix
printer to produce tactile output. On a whim I placed aluminum foil in
my dot matrix on friction feed, and ran some output. Low and behold, it
produced very interesting results. I then removed the ribbon which seemed
to produce better results.
The output does not seem to be useful in producing braille, but certainly
would work for graphs, maps and the like. Though aluminum foil is not the
best choice of a material it is certainly affordable. Not sure at this
point how to make the output last on a more permanent basis. Perhaps
fixing it to cardstock in some way would help? It is also an affordable
solution asexisting hardware/technology was used. Dot matrix printers
can be had cheap enough these days that the extra wear induced by the
foil would not really matter.
I hope someone else will get a chance to test out my findings and give
some feedback. I will keep toying with things to see what other foils
and materials will work.
-- Dannie J. Gregoire dannie@iglou.com
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