PRE2018 3 Group13

Problem statement

In this world, there is an estimate of around 356.000 deafblind people internationally. Only around 1% of all books are translated in braille which means that people who are deaf-blind have small amount of available reading material. Even the blind people will most often need to resort to audio books if they want to read a certain novel.

Objective

Make it possible for people whose only choice to read books is using braille to read books which are not translated in braille and give a choice to blind people who prefer to read in silence to do so.

Target group

The users of our device will be people with visual and/or hearing impairments who know how to read braille. For the people with both visual and hearing impairments, they will use this product in order to read novels. For the people with just visual impairments, they will use the product incase they prefer to read in silence. Most visual impaired people have to resort to use audio books because of limited availability braille books.

Abstract

A robot which is able to read a book/form of text and is able to translate it into braille so that deaf-blind people can read it.

Approach

If we build a prototype of the mechanical part: Firstly, we will research braille on which we can base our user requirements on. We then look for existing patents and their mechanics on a Braille output system and look for possible trade-offs. Once we have detailed insight on the possible solutions, we devise our own solution based on our design decisions that correspond to the user requirements. We make a concept to visualize our idea and eventually we will make a (physical) prototype that can be tested with our target users.

If we only focus on user-friendliness
Firstly, we will research braille on which we can base our user requirements on. We then look for the most user-friendly materials and user-interface so we can improve the user-friendliness of the machine.

Milestones

Have digital text be the input of a reusable interface where the text is converted to braille. The braille can be projected per word or group of words, depending on their length. Choose the research topic Summarize a State-of-the-Art by performing a literature study Find a contact person that fits our target user group to gather additional information regarding our case Create user requirements for the robot Validate the requirements with the contact person Design a concept build corresponding to the requirements Validate the concept with the contact person Build a prototype of our concept and test it with the contact person Produce a final presentation in which we discuss the process, design and prototype

Deliverables

Compact, user-friendly and cost-efficient physical braille interface. The Braille interface should accept digital text and convert it to several Braille characters at a time. User-friendliness consists of: Type of material to interact with Speed of the machine Possible physical interaction with buttons/triggers (functionality)

Possibly a working prototype of one or several letters, that can be reset and configures itself to a given input.

Role division

• Material choice
  • Dennis
• User interface (layout, buttons etc.)
  • Thomas
• Converting feedback of test person to useful information
  • Luc
• Hardware internals stuff
  • Luc
• Builder
  • Simon
• Programmer if we build a 6-segment letter prototype
  • Dirk

Planning

The planning of the project can be found here.

User requirements

We will need a way to convert (digital) text to braille and we can do it as follows:

Create a robot which is able to translate e-books into braille so that the users can read it (with translate we do not mean to write a new book with the translation but instead some other form of reusable interface).

In order to determine fitting user requirements, we have broken down our research into different sections in which we look at general literature studies, user focused research and materials for the braille interaction. From these sections we draw our overall user requirements, which can be found at: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1D0T3C2wYtNyWK7ZE4wtTIpXq9gRA280T4eBAQZk00WI

State-of-the-Art literature study

We have a seperate page for the literature study which contains summaries of knowledge relevant to braille and its users. From systems, mechanisms to its perception and standards. The page can be found here.

Mechanisms

Here, existing solutions (mechanisms) can be described. Other subdivisions can be made separately in this chapter.

Material study

For materials we’ll first look into materials which can act as a cover over the pins of the robot. For this to be possible, the material would need to be sufficiently elastic. With this approach we aim to provide a good user experience which might be hindered by the spaces and inconsistencies that a non-elastic braille display would provide. This inconsistencies might be created because of faults in the connection between the braille display and the pins or unintended deformation of the braille display. Based on the feedback we’ll receive from our interviews, we might look into the non-elastic materials. Further in depth information can be found here.

Material sources

[1]https://www.the-warren.org/ALevelRevision/engineering/Materialclasses.html

[2]https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/young-modulus-d_773.html

[3]http://burncentrecare.co.uk/about_burned_skin.html https://www.orfit.com/faq/what-are-low-temperature-thermoplastic-materials-lttps/

[4]https://agmetalminer.com/metal-prices/carbon-steel/

http://www.campaignforwool.org/about-wool/

http://bieap.gov.in/Pdf/CGTPaperII.pdf

https://global.kyocera.com/fcworld/charact/strong/rigidity.html

https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/ceramics-properties-d_1227.html

http://www.dynacer.com/properties/

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Elastomer

https://www.britannica.com/science/elastomer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermosetting_polymer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoplastic

https://www.onealsteel.com/carbon-and-alloy-steel.html

https://www.metalsupermarkets.com/what-is-chromoly/

https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/301/concepts/understanding-elasticity/

User research

Besides the literature study, we would like more direct involvement from our target group as well. To involve them in the design and development process and in order to do so, we have attempted to contact several institutes and communities for blind people both through phone calls and online posts. Unfortunately, the amount of responses we got is low and we only managed to get a few of our survey filled in. Therefore we have decided to look for existing surveys that relate to our users and questions. The results of all user surveys are on this page.

Final results

In this chapter, the final results will be described, as well as the process of getting to these results.

Sentence (dummy)

The wiki section on the dummy sentence can be found here.

Letter (solenoids)

Here, the prototype of the working letter is explained.

Casing

The second part of the dummy will be the casing. This casing refers to the outside of the dummy which is used to provide an estimate of the size of our robot and a base on which the other parts will be attached to. Since we focus more on the reading aspect, for the base a simple box would be sufficient. The dimensions of this box will most likely depend on the needed estimated space for the hardware and the size of the braille display. An important thing to take into consideration when creating the casing, will be to consider interaction between the braille display dummy and the casing itself. For example, in case you want to change the letters of braille on the display, the casing should allow for a display to be removed and reattached.

Software

The wiki section on the dummy sentence can be found here.

Concept interface

Concept interface.

Further improvement and future work

Further improvement and future work.

Reflection (OPTIONAL)

If we have time left, we can add a Reflection chapter to evaluate the project.