This dynamic braille-screened smartwatch dynamically raises points (or: dots) above its surface, allowing the blind to read text messages or translate webpages right on their wrists.

Sleekly designed like other hot smartwatches on the market, the Dot can show up to four characters at a time at customizable speeds, representing a dramatic change from clunky USB-plugged computer adapters and potentially distracting text-to-voice translators.

The Dot is just 1/20th of the size of these traditional terminals and 1/10th of the cost. A new type of actuator makes it possible to present braille with much less technological baggage (and cost). Oh, and it tells the time too.

Dots, the South Korean startup behind the device founded by four design and technology students, aims to release this gadget for just a few hundred dollars, much cheaper than traditional braille conversion devices and of course much more portable as well. “Until now, if you got a message on iOS from your girlfriend, for example, you had to listen to Siri read it to you in that voice, which is impersonal. Wouldn’t you rather read it yourself and hear your girlfriend’s voice saying it in your head?”

The post 3D Dots Breakthrough: World’s First Braille Smartwatch first appeared on Gajitz.

Beyond braille, this device can output raised patterns, maps, graphics and more, all for the visually impaired using liquid rather than mechanical parts for a more robust machine and fluid experience.

Liquid bubbles raise up on the surface of the device while complimentary software is able to convert various file formats for easy compatibility, accepting files wirelessly or via USB. Blitab Technology boasts of its creation: “This is revolutionary and we want to solve a great issue, and that’s the literacy of blind people. The technology is quite scalable so we can output images and put any tactile relief representation like maps and graphics, such as geometric figures, in order to serve as an educational tool for blind people.”

Current market competitors (like the one shown above) generate only a single line of braille at a time and cannot create more complex shapes – they also cost up to three times as much and thus serve only small niche markets that can afford them.

“We think blind people should be included in the digital era in which we live, with all of the smartphones and tablets, but also ensure that they have a proper way to do everything that sighted people do, like web browsing, reading books and downloading books. Only 1% of all books worldwide are available in printed braille, as it’s very expensive to produce printed braille. Some people are even saying that braille is decreasing among blind people but we want to get to the point where we can actually change this.”

The post Tactile Tablet: Dynamic Liquid Surface Device for the Blind first appeared on Gajitz.