A keyboard accessory for a smartphone for training, and typing in braille
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1) Create a tactile interface in a small form factor that can be used in conjunction with a smartphone.
2)A Smartphone based Braille trainer.
The intention is to create a better interface for a smartphone for the visually challenged.
The secondary goals are:
1) Opensource Electronics
2) Cost effective BOM
3)3D Printintable design
Tipo Braille Keyboard Phase 1 Project Plan
Feedback from latest user test:
Design Changes being considered for next prototype considering feedback:
I visited a local NGO for the blind to carry out the first user prototype testing, upon their invitation. The test was carried out by people with and without prior knowledge of Braille. This is what we observed:
The feedback we received from the user group was very informative for us. Here are the excerpts:
We will be looking to cover more institutions like these to get assistance on improving the prototype through more user tests.
Consolidating on the Hackaday Prize recently received for the Best Product Design and 5th Place overall at the Hackaday SuperCon 2017, we have been working on developing more prototypes for the purpose of carrying out demonstration and user testing. This is done to gain some valuable feedback to carry out improvisation and additions, if necessary, to the functionality of the product. There was a slight change made to the prototype design to accommodate the 16 MHz oscillator within the enclosure we got 3-D printed. A slit was created at the back for the oscillator to provide preference to functionality over ergonomics in this iteration of the prototype.
You heard that right! I just got back to work after my [Vijay} trip to the US to attend the Hackaday SuperCon 2017. Last couple of weeks feel like a blur, dealing with the overwhelming emotions and getting over jet lag twice! [India is almost on the other side of the earth] Thank you to all the Judges and Hackaday for this opportunity!
In case you missed it, here is the Ceremony:
I've gotten some great response back home. @Shree Kumar has modified his open source smartphone based on his KiteBoard project (http://www.kiteboard.io/blog) to integrate Tipo's keyboard directly inside!
I'm looking for a couple of full-time interns to work on the project in Bangalore India, since everyone else on the team has been working part time, and we need to accelerate its deployment in the market.
If you are from Bangalore, India, we need someone who:
- Is well versed with Arduino programming and good programming practices.
- Can talk to people from other organisations, work with the visually impaired, take feedback.
-Operations and Project Management. Interfacing with vendors etc.
-PCB Design, 3D Prining, CAD Design slillz would be nice.
Let me know if you are interested!
@Prashant Sharma is working on building 25 keypads for lab testing with a user group from UNESCO and Technology For The People .
They have a very detailed process and documentation procedure when it comes to projects for the disabled and are putting a team of volunteers together to help us with it. With this, they say getting stakeholders from various NGO's and Government will be easier since the value proposition is well documented, as well as will give us detailed feedback to focus future development, and not chase every feature request we have been getting.
The PCB designs are slightly updated, for making assembly easier with all components on one side, and button pads on the other ( as opposed to everything being on one side). I Will be updating the source files once the boards are assembled and tested.
I am flying to Pasadena day-after to attend the Hackaday Superconferance on 10th, 11th and 12th. Looking forward to meeting amazing people and hope we get somewhere in the Hackaday prize !
See you there!
Because of the national coverage that Tipo has gotten, Many visually impaired have been getting in touch with me, and I wanted to write a log sharing some of the latest feedback:
1) The Blind "Baba" :
in India, a baba is a religious godman . One of the followers of a bind baba got in touch saying that, the baba struggles to update his social media, and needs help to do it every time. He uses a feature phone for convenience but wants to be self sufficient by using a smartphone.
The tactile buttons were a breeze to use, and made him really happy. The problem is that he wanted to use Tipo in the regional language of Kannada.
Adding multi language support will be pushed up the priority list of to do tasks.
2) The Blind lawyer:
I have never seen someone so happy and excited in my life. It bought a tear to my eye. He expressed how important such a device can be for the visually impaired who want to to move up in their career by being self sufficient, and also to learn and be proficient in braille . He was happy to know that where are plans to code Tipo for contracted braille, as he is pretty advanced in braille.
He expressed the need for some sort of navigational buttons to have move the cursor along sentences and paragraphs.
He will be putting me in touch with the educated/working strata of the visually impaired, to get more people involved in testing.
One another interesting feedback he gave, was that, we should charge a decent price for this device, as it is useful to the visually impaired, and needs to be respected. He gave me examples of some other products that had been abused because they were being given out for free.
I've been getting amazing feedback about Tipo from all around the world! People seem to be really excited about this, and I underestimated its impact initially. Its is amazing to know that something like this isnt already in the market!
Some of the things that came up in feedback:
1) Faster typing by directly switching between characters, instead of leaving all buttons.
Currently, one will need to leave all the buttons after pressing a button combination to register a character. Apparently, in modern braille typewriters, you can just go from one combination to another, without letting go of all the keys. This would effectively double the speed of typing. This was highlightened during some of the initial testing we did as well.
It might be a challenge to implement on the code, getting the timing of the button combination presses right, but is a great challenge and goal to work towards. If anyone has ideas, please pitch in!
2) incorporating grade 2 and grade 3 braille for faster typing.
There are a number of different versions of Braille:
The next step would be to at-least include grade-2 braille in the firmware.
3) Vibration motors under each button to help in Braille training
For someone who has gone blind, vs born blind, learning braille can he an effort. Tipo can function as a braille training assistant as well. Using vibration motors under the individual buttons, individuals can learn braille as well.
Second prototype of the braille keyboard. My braille is a little rusty, but i'm sure someone experienced in braille can type twice as fast.
By setting "Talk Back" to ON in the accessibility settings, you can get the phone to repeat what you type
Its time to put it all Together! I will posting a better "how-to" in the instructions section after the project is done. I will be just covering instructions on assembly here.
Assembly:
1) Silicone button pads
The parts I ordered from Ali-express didn't arrive on time, so i had to resort to desperate measures. I broke open a calculator, and salvages its button pads.
2) Cutting and alignment:
I cut the silicone pads into small section to git on to the small form factor, and not come in between some of the passive electronics on the PCB.
The buttons have projects on them that align with depressions on the silicone pads. In case you have a different SKU of silicone button pads, you might need to change the CAD files of the buttons I have uploaded for best results.
3)Closing Up
The PCB should align along with the pads, thanks to my mastery in CAD ;P
Close the other half of the clamp-shell.
This documentation describes Open Hardware and is licensed under the
CERN OHL v. 1.2.
You may redistribute and modify this documentation under the terms of the
CERN OHL v.1.2. (http://ohwr.org/cernohl). This documentation is distributed
WITHOUT ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY, INCLUDING OF
MERCHANTABILITY, SATISFACTORY QUALITY AND FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Please see the CERN OHL v.1.2 for applicable
conditions
You will need:
- Male to Female jumper cables
- AVR programmer ( I used Pocket AVR programmer from sparkfun )
- USB micro cable for the programmer
-USB OTG cable
-All 3D printed parts
-M3 x 10 CSK screws
-Silicone button pads
The brains of Tipo is basically the same AVR 32u4 chip used in the Arduino Leonardo. We use the arduino leonardo bootloader to make programming easier, via the USB type A directly.
Use the pocket AVR programmer to upload the Arduino Leonardo bootloader. This guide should help:
https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/pocket-avr-programmer-hookup-guide
Good project, however, the PCB and case do not match up. I cannot find a file for the new PCB design. Would like to put this project together.
Congrats on the prize! This is a really cool project.
I am integrating this into my modular smartphone kit project at kiteboard dot io.
Vijay
Supplyframe DesignLab
Hernán Valdés
dariocose
help me to develop low-cost braille display
Of 40 million blind people in the world, only 10% can read and write braille.
One of the primary reason for this is because braille hasn't yet found its jogging in the digital era, due to the sheer cost of such devices, as well as the affordability matrix of the visually impaired.
Low-cost braille displays have been sought after for quite a while with no avail.
Commercially available braille displays employ peizo-electric actuated pins, which are very expensive.
Due to the sheer expense of braille technology, and the scarce availability of books in braille, the medium is slowly falling out of favor. But many agree that braille literacy is paramount for the empowerment of the blind for education and employment.
It's amazing how expensive assistive technology is. A small flagil braille display costs more than $ 1,200 USD and a good quality one goes from $ 3,000 to $ 6,000. That is why I am developing an open source project. This is by no means a finished product. Being an open source project, I hope others will improve the design. In the near future, with the help of volunteers, Brailletouch will reduce the cost of a braille display by 90% and allow anyone who is visually impaired or deafblind to read and write braille, as well as use a computer or mobile device efficiently. and without noise. So if you know someone, if you are a creator, if you are curious or if you want to help, feel free to enter our repository https://github.com/brailletouch/Brailletouch and help me build a community around Brailletouch.
The encoder is practically the heart of the braille display. Most commercial braille displays have 40 or 80 braille cells. Since the most expensive on a braille display is braille cells, which cost more than $ 35 each, we are designing a new form of braille display with 40 virtual cells and a single physical braille cell, reducing most of the cost. . We are talking about a braille cell that can be made from 3D printed parts, I designed a different system. Instead of activating 40 cells at the same time and applying all the power to 40 physical cells, Brailletouch uses a physical encoder and a virtual braille display of 40 touch sensors placed in a matrix. In this way, the braille text is gradually displayed in a single braille cell as the virtual cells are touched. Parts can be easily printed.
My braille display design succeeds in reducing the cost of a braille display by over 90%. Currently, a braille screen has a cost between $ 1200 and $ 6000, being $ 1200 the smallest and most fragile, my proposal seeks to achieve a braille screen that can be manufactured between 100 and $ 150, it could even be much cheaper when making production mass. Basically, we could have a screen at an affordable price for all visually impaired and deafblind people.
My project is open source. The idea is to make available to anyone anywhere in the world a code that can be modified and improved, files for 3D printers to print their parts and an assembly manual, so that anyone can download, print, assemble and use
Its development is based on an esp32 microcontroller. (What is open source hardware)
I do this because I am looking for support if you can support or meet someone who can support with the following needs:
Microcontroller Programmer
Diceño in 3d
Handling the HiD protocol (we need to create the code for the Esp-32 to communicate with the breille HID)
Language translator
Documentation development
Economical support
Any company or organization that finances the project.
If you can support some of these needs or know someone who can do it or an organization that can financially finance the project, I would be very grateful if you could contact me at +584129994784
OUR REPOSITORY
https://github.com/brailletouch/brailletouch