DEVELOPMENT OF A COMPUTER MONITOR UTILIZING A FULL SCREEN BRAILLE DISPLAY.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PROTOTYPE COMPUTER MONITOR FOR THE BLIND, UTILIZING BRAILLE CHARACTERS AS OPPOSED TO ALPHANUMERIC WILL BE PURSUED DURING PHASE I OF THIS PROJECT.BY COMBINING CURRENT STATE OF THE ART ELECTRONICS AND UTILIZING SOME SPECIAL HYDRAULICS, A SCREEN COULD BE DEVELOPED CONSISTING OF HYDRAULICALLY OPERATED MINIATURE PINS ARRANGED IN A STANDARD BRAILLE PATTERN. THE RAISING AND LOWERING OF SELECTED PINS WOULD RESULT IN BRAILLE SCRIPT THAT COULD BE READ BY A BLIND USER. THE FOCUS OF THERESEARCH WILL INVOLVE ADAPTING THE UNIQUE PROPERTIES OF A NEWLY DEVELOPED FLUID INTO THE BRAILLE MONITOR HYDRAULIC SYSTEM. A SMALL SYSTEM PROTOTYPE CONSISTING OF TWO LINES OF PINS AND FIFTEEN CHARACTERS PER LINE WILL BE DEVELOPED FOR THIS INITIAL INVESTIGATION.