Breakthrough Smart Watch Converts Text and Email into Braille

207 years ago today, the man who devised a system for reading and writing for the blind, was born. Now, Louis Braille’s system of dots has been given a hi-tech design upgrade by a company called Dot, Inc.

The Dot Watch, which turns text messages into braille for the blind, is being celebrated as the first major innovation for visually impaired readers in nearly 15 years.

After seeing a blind classmate lugging around a heavy braille bible, which contained only five percent of the contents of the holy book, Eric Ju Yoon Kim was surprised that nothing like a Braille iPad existed.

So the University of Washington student set out to invent one.

His first product is a smart watch that raises and lowers pins on its face to create four Braille characters at a time. The watch works with both iOS and Android devices, allowing the blind to immediately read texts, alerts, and other short messages.

Electro-mechanical Braille readers can translate text on computer screens in a method similar to the DOT watch, but the bulky machines can cost more than $2,000.

http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/feel-this-smart-watch-convert-text-and-email-into-braille/