Refreshable Locking Tactile Image Array for Accessibility

This is an SBIR Phase II proposal to develop a tactile refreshable computer display prototype (TRCD) that will support multiple tactile alphabets (e.g. ELIA, braille, and Roman), multiple lines of text, and graphics to benefit the more than 1.8 million blind Americans. Commercially available TRCDs are expensive (~$12,000, or $19 per actuator), provide only one line of text (with 640 actuators) and don¿t support tactile graphics. The researchers will develop an advanced prototype based on the patented NIST technology, using new technological approaches. This technology will support a TRCD with as many as 10,000 actuators at a cost of less than $1/ actuator. The researchers anticipate they can create a faster, more efficient prototype, addressing the commercial viability concerns of NIST¿s current tactile image display prototype.