Braille Keyboard Research Articles

Copper selenide as a facile nanomaterial for triboelectric nanogenerator: Self-powered Braille code keyboard

The development of triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) for sustainable energy harvesting has garnered significant interest, especially in integrating advanced materials to enhance device performance and exploring applications. Herein, the present study investigates the use of copper selenide (Cu2Se) as a robust material for TENGs fabrication. Cu2Se nanorods are synthesized using a facile hydrothermal method and subsequently embedded in a polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) matrix to form a nanocomposite, which is then utilized as tribopositive film. The procured Cu2Se and nanocomposites with varying filler quantities (0.1, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.8 wt%) are analyzed using powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, dielectric measurements, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy to evaluate their structural, morphological, dielectric, and optical properties, and their impact on TENG performance. Interestingly, the device with 0.2 wt% Cu2Se generated peak-to-peak voltage and current of 394.35 V and 83.45 µA respectively, which is about 2.5- and 41-times higher output compared to pristine PVA-TENG. Integrating Cu2Se as filler enhances charge generation, transfer, and retention, due to increased surface roughness, and ability to facilitate better charge separation within the polymer matrix leading to more efficient energy conversion in TENGs. In practical demonstration, the optimized PVA@ Cu2Se-TENG is employed as a self-powered Braille keyboard to generate electrical signals from mechanical interactions, offering a promising solution for energy-efficient, user-friendly Braille technology. Thus, the current study highlights the synergistic effects of integrating Cu2Se with polymer, resulting in enhanced triboelectric performance for innovative energy harvesting applications and self-powered sensory devices.

A Portable One-Hand Braille Input System Enabled by Dual-Interlocked Tactile Sensors for Communication

This article presents a novel portable one-hand Braille input system (BIS) to assist visually impaired users in entering text on electronic devices. The proposed BIS is designed based on a flexible Braille keyboard (FBK), it mainly consists of five dual-interlocked tactile sensors, a processing circuit, and a software modulus. The fully elastomeric graphene/carbon nanotube/ silicone rubber nanocomposites are synthesized and used as tactile sensing material and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the structural and encapsulation for the fabrication of sensors. Characterization tests showed the tactile sensor has relatively high force sensing sensitivity of 0.649 N <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{-\text{1}}$</tex-math> </inline-formula> at sensing range of 0–5 N and a frequency sensing ability of 0.5–2.0 Hz, which can meet human finger pressing requirements. A specific Braille input method is proposed, and personalized parameters are set for users to fit different pressing habits. The average input speed of 3.37 words per minute (WPM) with an average accuracy of 92.2% for Braille characters input is demonstrated by evaluating text entry performance. The results indicated that our developed tactile sensor enabled portable one-hand BIS can assist visual impaired users with enhanced text entry on electronic devices effectively and privately.

Shape-Designable and Reconfigurable All-Paper Sensor through the Sandwich Architecture for Pressure/Proximity Detection.

All-paper sensors that are capable of free cutting and folding maximize the merits of papers, which fully utilize the unique potential of papers in cost effectiveness, flexibility, disposability, biodegradability, and a flexible design. However, most of the paper sensors have applied metals as the electrodes and polyimide/polydimethylsiloxane as the encapsulation/sensitive layers, limiting the advantages of the paper sensor. In this work, an all-paper, shape-designable, and reconfigurable capacitive pressure/proximity sensor is fabricated with multilayered tissue paper as the dielectric and polypyrrole printer paper as the electrode/encapsulation. Without the restriction of heterogeneous materials, the all-paper components enable the sensors' flexible shape design for freely cuttable and foldable 2D and 3D sensors including a 2D braille keyboard and even allow reconfiguration from a 3D box sensor to a 3D candy sensor. The all-paper sensor presents superior pressure-sensing performance (0.96 kPa-1 at <1.76 kPa and 0.09 kPa-1 at 1.76-22 kPa) and proximity-sensing ability. The sensing mechanism of the sensor is directly revealed from tissue paper changes using in situ 3D microscopy and dielectric measurement experiments. These results provide inspiration for realizing shape-designable and reconfigurable 3D sensors and fully demonstrate the application potential in omnidirectional perception, stretchable sensors, and green electronics.

Enforcement of Highly Secured Dynamic ATM Pin Entry

The proposes system carries implementing some real-time modifications to the existing systems. It implies with providing an additional special character along with the 4-digit pin rather than the conventional ATM pin. The special character ensures the implementation of a special mathematical algorithm which creates a dynamic security pin during each transaction, making each transaction highly secure. While the transaction is initiated, a set of special characters is displayed in the ATM screen. The display carries our special character (provided with our security pin) along with number of special characters. The count of the special character is to be noted and added along with the provided 4-digit security pin and entered. The importance of this algorithm is the count of the special character is varied dynamically during every transaction. It creates a new security pin during every transaction. The security pin entered during a transaction is stored in the bank server safely. It adds up a safety feature that, if somebody illicitly captures our security pin and illicitly try to enter it, it blocks the ATM and intimates the user. To help the blind person to access the ATM centres, a technique implemented for facial recognition and the transactions carryout securely. The facial recognition helps to initiate the transaction, following it the ATM provides voice command to help them to carry out the transactions with the braille keyboard.

Deep Reinforcement Learning for Tactile Robotics: Learning to Type on a Braille Keyboard

Artificial touch would seem well-suited for Reinforcement Learning (RL), since both paradigms rely on interaction with an environment. Here we propose a new environment and set of tasks to encourage development of tactile reinforcement learning: learning to type on a braille keyboard. Four tasks are proposed, progressing in difficulty from arrow to alphabet keys and from discrete to continuous actions. A simulated counterpart is also constructed by sampling tactile data from the physical environment. Using state-of-the-art deep RL algorithms, we show that all of these tasks can be successfully learnt in simulation, and 3 out of 4 tasks can be learned on the real robot. A lack of sample efficiency currently makes the continuous alphabet task impractical on the robot. To the best of our knowledge, this work presents the first demonstration of successfully training deep RL agents in the real world using observations that exclusively consist of tactile images. To aid future research utilising this environment, the code for this project has been released along with designs of the braille keycaps for 3D printing and a guide for recreating the experiments.

Mobile Braille Touch Application for Visually Impaired People using Double Diamond Approach

Reading and writing in Braille learning using technology for visually impaired people has been available in various forms. One of Braille learning has been developed using smartphone is Mobile Braille Touch (MBT) application. MBT developed is far from perfect, system on MBT still use static keyboard. The button touch in MBT is not effective, so the user cannot touch the button properly. Therefore, Mobile Braille Touch application further developed based on user experiences (UX) correspond with user needs. In this research, we use a Double Diamond method which consists of (1) Discover, (2) Define, (3) Develop, (4) Delivery. The result of this research is developing of new Virtual Braille Keyboard (VBK) that called as dynamic keyboard. This VBK consist of dynamic dot braille and swipe writing assisted button.

Pocket Braille Keyboard – Reader using Braille Back Service

Major disadvantage of Existing Braille Keyboard is the Cost which is greater than 3500$ and size more than 15 cm. Out of 285 million visually impaired people, not many are able to afford it and it’s hefty to carry around. This project presents the making of Pocket Braille Keyboard-Reader of less cost, around 100$, and more compact in size. Principle technologies used are capacitive touch sensing and MEMs (Micro-Electrical Mechanical systems) for typing and reading respectively, which will be assisting the visually impaired people to interact with the world. Ex: Reading and typing in Braille Language, interacting with SMART phone with NAVIGATION keys on the Keyboard.

Use of a Smartphone for Leisure and Communication by People with Blindness and Motor Disabilities

Persons who are blind and have additional disabilities (that is, intellectual or motor disabilities or both) may fail to independently manage leisure engagement and communication with distant partners (partners who are not present in their immediate environment) (Lancioni et al., 2011, 2016; Sutherland et al., 2014; Taylor & Hodapp, 2012). Indeed, their disabilities may severely curtail or prevent the use of computer and telephone devices, which are instrumental in accessing leisure activities or to establish communication (to exchange text messages or telephone calls) with distant family members and friends (Hreha & Snowdon, 2011; Lancioni et al., 2012, 2014). A growing awareness of the negative personal and social implications of this problem has shown the need for assistive technology solutions to improve the situation (Meder & Wegner, 2015; O'Rourke et al., 2014; Stasolla et al., 2015). Recently, a computer-aided program was developed for helping these persons access leisure options such as songs, or to make telephone calls or exchange text messages independently (Lancioni et al., 2013, 2014, 2016). The program's first function was to present the options available (for instance, music or telephone). When an option was selected (by activating a simple microswitch at the presentation of that option), the computer listed several choice alternatives (such as several songs or partners for a call). When a song or a partner was selected, the computer played that song or placed a call to that partner. The present study was aimed at extending the limited research in this area (Kazdin, 2011); specifically, at the possibility of teaching three participants with blindness and motor disabilities to manage independent leisure engagement and communication with distant partners via a smartphone (that is, via a cheaper and more accessible technology solution than the aforementioned computer-aided program; Azenkot & Lee, 2013; Lancioni et al., 2014; Macias et al., 2015). To this end, the smartphone was fitted with leisure activity files that could be opened or activated and with lists of partners (and respective telephone numbers) that could be reached, and the participants were taught to interact with the smartphone (opening those files or reaching the partners) through specific verbal inputs. Methods Participants The participants (Michael, Judy, and Anne) were 48, 47, and 42 years old, respectively, and had a diagnosis of blindness and motor disabilities subsequent to congenital encephalopathy and premature birth or hydrocephalus. Michael had hemiparesis, which restricted his ability to manipulate objects and required him to have some support for walking. Judy and Anne had spastic tetraparesis, were nonambulatory, and had serious restrictions in the use of their hands to reach and manipulate objects. Psychological records described Judy's level of intellectual functioning as typical, while Michael and Anne's levels were considered to be in the borderline or mild disability area. Their Vineland age equivalences (Sparrow, Cicchetti, & Balla, 2005) ranged from 9 years and 2 months to 11 years and 4 months for communication (with all three producing clear verbal utterances), and from 2 years and 11 months to 5 years and 0 months for daily living skills. The participants attended an activity center for persons with multiple disabilities and were eager to use a technology solution to manage leisure occupation and to communicate with distant partners independently. Their previous technology exposure was limited to a computer with a braille keyboard for writing, which only Judy was occasionally using. None of them had any experience with smartphones. They agreed to be involved in this study, which had been approved by an ethics committee and which required their legal representatives to sign a consent form for their participation. Setting, sessions, and data recording A quiet area of the center that the participants attended served as the setting for the study. …

Towards hand gesture based writing support system for blinds

In this digital age, personal computers are widely used. But the blind people cannot handle it easily. Human–computer interaction (HCI) may play vital role in overcoming this obstacle. Computer keyboard contains about 104 keys, whereas six-dot Braille keyboard supports only 63 symbols. To bridge this gap, a new dactylology is proposed in this article. Additionally, a new feature extraction technique, Reduced Shape Signature (RSS), is introduced in this article which is rotation, translation and scale invariant. Further, RSS is compact as it reduces the number of feature-sets by 35%. To discriminate intra-class gestures difference angle and polygonal area are computed along with RSS. The symbols recognition rate of the proposed algorithm is 97.53%.

Improving Accessibility for Students with Visual Disabilities in the Technology-Rich Classroom

ABSTRACTAs higher education has increasingly embraced digital technologies, we have been too slow to acknowledge accessibility issues for students with visual disabilities. One of the earliest promises of information and communication technology was increased accessibility to content. In theory, digitized content should be as equally accessible as the printed word on a screen, a braille keyboard, or an audible voice on a speaker. In the majority of educational technology, this promise has gone unfulfilled, and faculty members are largely unaware of the myriad obstacles that students with visual disabilities confront while navigating the technology-rich classroom. The principles of Universal Design in Instruction (UDI) provide guidance for developing curriculum that maximizes accessibility and usability of course content for all learners, including those with disabilities. This article examines the development of political science courses through the lens of UDI.

Human Computer Interface for Victims using FPGA

Visually impaired people face many challenges in the society; particularly students with visual impairments face unique challenges in the education environment. They struggle a lot to access the information, so to resolve this obstacle in reading and to allow the visually impaired students to fully access and participate in the curriculum with the greatest possible level of independence, a Braille transliteration system using VLSI is designed. Here Braille input is given to FPGA Virtex-4 kit via Braille keyboard. The Braille language is converted into English language by decoding logic in VHDL/Verilog and then the corresponding alphabet letter is converted into speech signal with the help of the algorithm. Speaker is used for the voice output. This project allows the visually impaired people to get literate also the person can get a conformation about what is being typed, every time that character is being pressed, this prevents the occurrence of mistakes.

Bridging the Disability Divide: Success Factors and Challenges

Bridging the Disability Divide: Success Factors and Challenges

Electronic memory devices for the blind

The device basically comprises a Braille keyboard, a memory for storing text entered on the keyboard, a text editor and a speech synthesizer. Braille coded information entered by the user by means of the keyboard is stored in the memory. The stored text may be subsequently converted to sighted language coded information by a translator and played back through the speech synthesizer to enable the user to interactively edit the stored text by means of the text editor in response to the speech output. The edited text may be outputted in sighted language form to a printer or in Braille form to an embosser to obtain a hard copy, or alternatively can be supplied to a cassette unit for long-term storage. The device is compact and simple to use.