What is a refreshable braille display? Taking apart the Braille Lite 2000

Hi Everybody,



Thanks for watching Charlie's Desk and asking questions. I received a couple inquiries about refreshable braille displays. I do my best to answer a few of them in this video. The first braille translation code, DOTSYS, was written in 1960 by Robert Mann at MIT. The first patent for a refreshable braille display is filed by Norman B. Sutherland at the Mitre Corp. in Bedford, MA. Ok, Massachusetts, stop, we get it. Anyways, the refreshable braille cell is enabled by the piezo effect. When a voltage, electricity, is applied to certain crystals they expand. The refreshable braille display takes advantage of this. Each dot has a crystal, each crystal is connected to a lever which raises and lowers the dot. I do the math wrong in the video, but an 80 cell refreshable braille display would require 640 individually functioning crystals. Once you start taking crystals, then you can start to understand the cost of these devices. Cool stuff! Thanks for watching and keep asking questions!

Sincerely,

Charlie

#blind #braille #visualimpairment #visuallyimpaired