Fw: Pocket Braille for people on the move: zb051015

Sun Oct 16 17:23:24 UTC 2005

in theory I'd say this looks very intersting.
combine it wiht a sharp zaurus with buildin keyboad and you're doen for
your mobile system.

Smallest display sofar available soams to be baum's portavario(brailliant
24).

On Sun, 16 Oct 2005, Ari wrote:

 >
 > ----- Original Message -----
 > From: "TNAUK" <tnauk at dircon.co.uk>
 > To: "TNAUK" <tnauk at dircon.co.uk>
 > Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2005 7:04 PM
 > Subject: Pocket Braille for people on the move: zb051015
 >
 >
 > > Pocket Braille for people on the move
 > >
 > > The article below may be of general interest to TNAUK subscribers
 > > - it is article number 35 of this week's New Scientist, ns051015.
 > >
 > >  #35  Pocket Braille for people on the move
 > >
 > > Celeste Biever
 > >
 > > AT LAST, the world's first portable electronic Braille display. It
 > > is small enough to fit in a pocket and can even be rolled up like
 > > a newspaper.
 > >
 > > The display consists of a sheet of tiny plastic paddles that bend
 > > in response to a voltage. It is designed to connect to a
 > > cellphone or laptop, and could also replace the liquid crystal
 > > screen of an ordinary PDA.
 > >
 > > Existing dynamic displays for blind people use an array of pins
 > > that pop up when stimulated by piezoelectric actuators. But the
 > > smallest versions are the size of a phone book and weigh about
 > > 500 grams, mainly because of the rigid fibreglass board the
 > > actuators are mounted on. 'It's moderately portable, but you
 > > certainly can't put it in your pocket,' says Curtis Chang of the
 > > National Federation for the Blind in Des Moines, Iowa. At $3800
 > > each, they are also too expensive for most people. 'I think the
 > > new display is a great idea,' Chang says.
 > >
 > > It will almost certainly be cheaper. Created by Takao Someya and
 > > his team at the University of Tokyo, the display is made entirely
 > > of a flexible polymer and thin metal films. These layers can be
 > > printed using low-cost deposition techniques, making a price tag
 > > of as little as $100 a distinct possibility, says Someya.
 > >
 > > The 16-centimetre-square prototype is just 1 millimetre thick and
 > > weighs 5 grams. A grid of organic transistors sits on a polymer
 > > membrane, with 144 plastic paddles on top. The entire device is
 > > coated with thin rubber.
 > >
 > > The paddles are made of a negatively charged polymer seeded with
 > > positively charged lithium ions and sandwiched between two metal
 > > electrodes (see Diagram). When a voltage is applied across the
 > > electrodes, the lithium ions migrate to the negative electrode on
 > > the lower side of the paddle. The result is a crowd of ions at
 > > the bottom, which expands the polymer and makes it bend upwards.
 > > On the tip of each paddle is a sphere under a millimetre across,
 > > which rises when the paddle bends, causing a bump in the rubber
 > > surface. When the current is switched off, the ions disperse back
 > > into the polymer, the paddle straightens and the bump disappears.
 > >
 > > The paddles take just under a second to move up or down, which is
 > > acceptable for reading a book or a short message, but not for
 > > someone working, says Chang. To make them move faster the
 > > transistors need to be made smaller, so the electrons have less
 > > distance to travel between the transistors' on and off state.
 > > This might be possible using nanofabrication techniques, says
 > > Someya.
 > >
 > > Someya will present the device at the International Electron
 > > Devices meeting in Washington DC in December.
 > >
 > > The devices could also go beyond Braille and recreate whole scenes
 > > on their surface, allowing the blind to feel images as well as
 > > words. 'The idea is to create an array of tiny pixels,' says
 > > Yoseph Bar-Cohen, an expert in Electro-active polymers at NASA's
 > > Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.
 > >
 > > But he is concerned the force of the paddles in Someya's device
 > > may be too weak. 'If a blind person cannot feel the movement of
 > > the dots, the device will not be practical.'
 > >
 > >
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 > > zb051015.txt sent using the zb.tdl distribution list,
 > >
 > >
 > >
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-- 
Andor Demarteau                 E-mail: andor at nl.linux.org
student computer science        www: http://www.nl.linux.org/~andor
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chairman Stichting Studiereizen Storm 2002-2004
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