INTERACTIVE FULL SCREEN MONITOR FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED

THIS PROJECT WILL DEVELOP A MECHANICALLY ACTUATED DEVICE WITH A TACTILE SURFACE. IT WILL PROVIDE A BRAILLE INTERFACEREPRESENTING THE SAME INFORMATION THAT A VIDEO MONITOR PROVIDES TO A SIGHTED PERSON. THE BRAILLE WILL BE IMPLEMENTED BY A GRID OF SOLENOIDS DRIVEN BY AN IBM PC COMPATABLE HARDWARE BOARD. THIS PHASE I PROJECT WILL DEMONSTRATE A 4" X 4" SAMPLE WHICH WILL SHOW THE FEASIBILITYOF PRODUCING AN 8" X 10" BRAILLE MONITOR IN PHASE II. DURING PHASE I THE CONTRACTOR WILL BUILD THE SOFTWARE DRIVER, THE INTERFACE BOARD AND THE SMALL SAMPLE BRAILLE MONITOR. THIS WILL DEMONSTRATE THE FEASIBILITY OF THE LARGESCALE MONITOR AND PROVIDE A BASIC FRAMEWORK FOR CONSTRUCTINGTHE FULL SCALE SYSTEM IN PHASE II. THE INTERFACE BOARD WILLPROVIDECONVERSION FROM ASCII VALUES FROM THE COMPUTER TO SOLENOID COMMANDS TO THE BRAILLE MONITOR. THE SOFTWARE DRIVER WILL PROVIDE ALL OF THE COMMUNICATION SUPPORT REQUIRED TO INTERFACE BETWEEN THE BOARD AND THE PC. THE BRAILLE MONITOR WILL PROVIDE THE MEANS FOR A VISUALLY HANDICAPPED PERSON TO QUICKLY LOCATE SECTIONS OF CODE OR FILES. PHASE II WILL IMPLEMENT A TOUCH SENSITIVE SCREEN, ZOOM CONTROL AND CURSOR CONTROL FEATURES. THIS WILL BE OF GREAT BENEFIT TO VH INDIVIDUALS BY ENABLING THEM TO HAVE THE SAME TYPE OF DISPLAY INFORMATION THAT IS AVAILABLE TO SIGHTED INDIVIDUALS USING A VIDEO MONITOR. IT WILL BE ABLE TO WORK IN CONJUNCTION WITH SOUND SYSTEMS AND RAISED DOT PRINTERS AND A MOUSE OR TRACK BALL TO ENHANCE THEVALUE OF THE SYSTEM.