Braille Tutor – Rough Crit – Prototype – Akshat Prakash

BrailleTutor

In this rough crit, I aimed to create my minimum viable product and prototype for the Braille Tutor.

Concept

The idea is to help in the adjustment-to-blindness training programs to allow “adults who originally learned to read print but lost their sight later in life” to learn braille.

Components

My braille system consists of a braille pad, that is an Arduino controlled six solenoid pin arrangement that creates one braille letter at a time. The system also consists of a companion android app that pairs with the braille pad to conduct lessons for the user to familiarize themselves with braille.

Prototype

The prototype, for purposes of the rough crit, consists of two solenoid pins controlled by an Arduino that pairs to my companion android app. The prototype does full justice to the proof of concept. I could achieve harmonic communication between the android app and Arduino and synchronously generate alphabets in conjunction with the two braille pins simulating the actuation of the corresponding braille translation of the alphabet.

The first lesson learn, displays an alphabet on the android screen and speaks it out. This is then communicated to the Arduino which actuates the pins (in the final version, I will have the rest of the four pins) in a 3D printed casing.

The second lesson generates a braille alphabet on the braille pad and asks the user to identify it.

I have more ideas for several lessons/braille dictionaries for the app. The final product will simply include these lessons and the rest of the four pins, enclosed in a professional casing.

Issues

The issues I will face are those related to power. Six solenoid pins are going to be using a lot of power and I need to find a way to make this more power efficient.

Video