The Braille Pad

Technical features

• Two sources of input - The Braille Pad can recieve its input from two sources, either from a scanner at its underside or from a connected computer.
  
  
• Multiple magnification ratios - The ratio between the size of the input text and the size of the output braille is variable. This is necesseary since braille should always be of a certain size whereas normal text can be of many different sizes. If you have a ratio greater than 1.0 there is a magnification of the input text, but not only the text is magnified when converted to braille, the response to the users handmovements is also magnified as a necesseary result. Since you can control the size of the input text to the Braille Pad if you are using a computer as input-generator and the output braille is of fixed size, you can use the magnification-phenomena to your advantage. If you use a very small font the Braille Pad will use a large magnification-ratio. The result is that you can scan an entire screen with very small handmovements, which is very useful if you have a limited working-space, for example if you are sitting on the subway.
  
  
• Input source transparency - The output from the Braille Pad is always the same regardless of the input. It doesn't matter if the input is a book, a cash-dispenser or a computer, the output will still be braille of a fixed size, or if you use the RAW mode, it will be whatever the Braille Pad is scanning, unmodified.
  
  
• Speech synthesis - The speech synthesis is a complement to the output window of the Braille Pad. It can read aloud the words that the Braille Pad has processed in a pair of earphones connected to it.
  
  
• Autofocus - The Braille Pad can not take for granted that the information to be scanned is always on the surface of the scanned object. Some cash-dispensers for example have a protecting glass that makes it necesseary to focus beyond the scanned surface to be able to get the desired information.

Fields of application

• The computer - With the Braille Pad, a blind person will be able to use a text-based operating system like MS-DOS and all its application programs. This means that the blind person will gain access to, admist other applications, internet through Lynx. She will also be able to use editors and compilers dedicated to seeing people without the need of modifying the programs in any way. It could even be possible for a blind person to use a more graphically oriented system like Macintosh or Motif if the system has a black and white mode (many colors would make the screen more difficult to interprete for the software of the Braille Pad), which at least the Macintosh has, for backward compability with older hardware. One of the things pointed out by our reference group is that as the computers get more and more sophisticated with prettier and more user-friendly operating systems, they actually address a smaller and smaller group of people. Using a graphical operating system instead of a text-based is one example, adding color to the latter is another example.
  
  
• The newspaper - Reading the newspaper is a means of information-gathering available only to seeing people. With the OCR-function of the Braille Pad, blind people would also be able to read the newspaper. Some headlines would of course be to big for the Braille Pad, and for the user to be able to make any sense out of these, she could use the RAW mode to study the shape of the letters.
  
  
• The cash-dispenser - During our visits at SRF, our reference group made it clear that cash-dispensers are a menace. With the Braille Pad, you can scan the screen of the cash-dispenser, have the information converted to braille and thus be able to use the cash-dispenser. To be able to scan the contents of the screen, the Braille Pad would have to have an autofocus-function, as mentioned earlier.