Most braille devices on the current market have crude design as they are suited for functionality only-not design. However, we began our designing process by reflecting on our two mottos: “people with blindness are no different” and “braille is beautiful”. In order to make our product appealing to both people with sight as well as people without vision, we are striving to design a fresh, fashionable wearable device.
The smart braille watch, ‘DOT’ is a wearable device that outputs text in braille. One prominent difference between a regular smart watch and ‘DOT’ is inserting and checking information in braille rather than text or graphics; a small, refreshable braille display is used.
A ‘DOT’ application will enable information on a smartphone to be transmitted to the smart watch via Bluetooth, outputting the information in braille. Unlike modern refreshable braille displays, which read one line at a time, ‘active braille display’ is utilized to make braille automatically pass by in the user’s hand as if it were an escalator. A touch sensor is located around four sections of the braille cell, which runs the braille display if a touch is detected.
As well as all the functions of a regular watch, the smart watch outputs every notification (alarm, text message, etc.) received on a smartphone. The watch even has a simple voice recording feature that can run without being connected to a mobile device.
