Since the ending of 2023 we work hard to update and  improve the project. As the Hackaday prize gave some light to the project, it also provided new development opportunities.

New Softwares

By the end of the 2023, there were only AccessBrailleRAP, a piece of software where you can enter some text, translate it in Braille and emboss your text on the BrailleRAP. Braille translation is provided by libLouis and you can use 200 Braille standards, to translate language from English to  Chinese passing by Italian, Dutch ... Most used languages all over the world can now be translated in Braille in AccessBralleRAP. Thanks to the codeberg platform, the GUI of the software is also translated in some languages (Arabic, Chinese, Ukrainian, German ....)

The main piece of software we release in 2024 is DesktopBrailleRAP. Just imagine a piece of software where you can put some text labels and svg vector graphics. Text labels are translated in Braille, and vector graphics are processed to emboss series of dots on all the edge of the svg element. This tool give you the opportunity to build tangible document where Braille is associated with tactile graphics representation. So you can build geographic map, pedagogic documents about mathematics, physics, biology ....

We are still testing this new graphics feature of the project but it's very promising. We are currently working on filling figure with dots patterns to give the opportunity of representing different colors in drawing. 

BrailleRAP XL

After some tests with DesktopBrailleRAP, it was obvious that A4 paper sheet was too small for some usage scenario. So we start thinking of a bigger design. Basically we took the A4 design, just enlarge the frame, add some paper rolls, and strengthen some part of the frame . And gotcha, we have now 2 design. In the smaller one, you can use anything to 210 x 297 mm material, in the BrailleRAP XL model, you can use anything to 297 x 420 mm. Each one have some pro and cons. The historic design in A4 is cheap, lightweight and easily transportable in a reasonable size backpack or case. The XL design of course offer more features but it is also a little more expensive (around 450 $) and 50% heavier (around 7 kg). With a frame size of 470 x 270 x 150, i can't imagine putting it in a backpack for every day use in mobility.