TITLE:
The Design and Development of a Multi-Lingual Braille System Output Device with Audio Enhancement
AUTHORS:
Michel J. Owayjan, Taimour Z. Wehbe, Elie Y. Bou Daher, Omran A. Ayoub
KEYWORDS:
Assistive Technologies; Braille Devices; Computer Peripheral Parts; Low-Vision Aiding Systems; Rehabilitation Engineering
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Software Engineering and Applications,
Vol.6 No.5,
May
24,
2013
ABSTRACT: Visually impaired people face
difficulties in interacting and gaining full advantage of computers. Recently,
and with the fast evolution in technology, researchers proposed to give the
blinds the ability to take advantage of
these advancements. Accordingly, designers and engineers started working
on projects that relate input and output devices to the computers in order for
the blind individual to have full control of the hi-tech machines. However,
investments in these kinds of hardware presented complexity in the design, in
addition to the high cost imposed by the devices used. The project’s objective
is to design and develop a Multi-Lingual Braille System Output Device for the
visually impaired individuals that enable them to access and read texts from a
computer. The device acquires both English or Arabic texts and displays them using controlled
piezoelectric Braille cells. It also has the ability to produce a sound that
matches the displayed
characters. The control of the cells is done via Programmable Interface
Controller (PIC) microcontroller. The interaction between the device and the
computer is done through the Universal Serial Bus (USB). C# is the language
used to write the program responsible for controlling this interaction. The
continuous development of such devices is essential for the visually impaired
to keep up with the technological advancements. The main advantages of this
system are its low cost, the added multi-lingual, and the audio features. In
addition, many features can be added so as to satisfy the users’ needs, such as
adding new languages and Grade 2 Braille System.