ANAGRAPHS · Anaglyptic Refreshable Photo-Haptic Screen

The scientific and technological developments in the present research project will be to make possible the manufacture of an anaglyptic or tactile display that can be connected to a personal computer or used in stand-alone mode as a Braille e-book reader. The display may be read either by touch or indeed by sight, since the tactile dots will also be illuminated when active. This feature will be of use in educational settings.Such a product will provide for the reading of any kind of textual or graphic information with 100% reliability. The device will not only applicable to Braille readers, as it will also be adaptable as a graphic tactile display able to display updatable information for non-Braille users. This could be applied to mass transportation, municipal and mercantile contexts. The system will be a major contribution to the integration of blind and visually impaired individuals into a society of knowledge.Our proposed development aims to deliver a system which better meets the needs of blind and sight-impaired people by providing a device which operates by thermo-hydraulic micro-actuation. Each of the six thousand Braille dots will be activated by resistive heating which is distributed to each cell of the display by a novel Resistive heater system. The system will be under microprocessor control using specially developed software.