>From: "Hoad, Stephen" <Stephen.Hoad@state.me.us>
>Date: 23 Jan 2001 12:27:04 -0500
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>Subject: FW: NASA DEVICE HELPS BLIND READ
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>NASA DEVICE HELPS BLIND READ
>Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) in Pasadena, CA, are
>developing an active tactile display device that presents textual and
>graphical information to a blind person. The concept for the device comes
>out of research on the use of electroactive polymers that generate forces
>and displacement in robotic actuators.
>
>The display is a planar array of small cones or "reading pins." Under
>computer control, the pins are lowered individually or in groups to
>present highs and lows according to the information one wants to convey
>to a blind person. The pattern is read by scanning it with the
>fingertips,
>just like reading conventional Braille print.
>
>The pins are lowered by use of an electroactive polymer that, in film
>form, has been found to contract by as much as 30 percent when subjected
>to an electric field. See the February issue of NASA Tech Briefs (page
>37)
>for more information on this device.
>
>
>--
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Braille is the solution to the digital divide.
Lloyd Rasmussen, Senior Staff Engineer
National Library Service f/t Blind and Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress (202) 707-0535 <lras@loc.gov>
<http://www.loc.gov/nls>
HOME: <lras@sprynet.com> <http://lras.home.sprynet.com>
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