Saw this post on Blind-L and thought many of you would be interested in
it.
--Bryan Bashin
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 8 May 1996 12:23:51 +0200
From: Neville Clarence-COMAD <pak00588@PIXIE.CO.ZA>
To: Multiple recipients of list BLIND-L <BLIND-L@UAFSYSB.UARK.EDU>
Subject: Rotary braille displays
Dear friends
For some time we have been working on a project to develop a low
cost Braille display. We are now in the prototype stage and
patents are pending!
The "Rotary Braille Display" comprises of 8, 8-dot cells mounted
on a mouse-like module. As the module is moved the cells move
giving the effect of a full 80-cell line. There is only one
activator. Once a cell has been activated the pins are latched,
ie. locked into place until re-activated.
The above device is designed for use in combination with a speech
synthesizer. If used alone it will be slow and somewhat
ineffective but will still work. Our target end-user price is
$750. First evaluation units should be available in 18 months.
Although most of the initial development of the above unit is
complete we now require a financial partner in order to bring it
to a production stage. We also require general comment and
statistics regarding the number of potential Braille display users
etc. Please share your ideas and feelings openly! We are not too
sure if the concept of a "moving" Braille display will work
psychologically! Several years ago another South African company
developed a "Braille mouse" which had a single cell built into it.
It worked well but somehow the engineers forgot that Braille is
read with amoving finger, not static finger. We hope that the
rotary concept will address this issue whilst keeping costs down
to a minimum.
Please e-mail me direct.
Neville Clarence
M.D. Computer Adaptations (COMAD)
South Africa
E-mail: comad@pixie.co.za
Tel. +27 (12) 346-3464
Fax. +27 (12) 346-2303
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Sun Dec 02 2012 - 01:30:04 PST