SBIR Phase II: Tactile Graphic Array

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will conduct research leading to the development of working prototypes of new low cost and compact Tactile Graphic Displays and Braille Displays. The dominant technology today, displays driven by piezo-electric actuators, has two major deficiencies. It is very expensive, about $12 to $16 per tactile dot, and the actuator shape, a 50 to 70 mm long reed, significantly increases the volume of feasible displays, essentially limiting their use to single line Braille displays for desktop or portable devices. During the Phase I of the project, C.A.Technology performed extensive research on the design of a new Shape Memory Alloy single dot actuator and has demonstrated the feasibility of tactile displays based on this technology. This actuator uses a short and very thin Titanium-Nickel alloy wire, which will bring the cost per dot down to about $3 to $4, and will considerably reduce the display volume, allowing its use in hand-held devices. The Phase II effort will include the following: 1) detailed design, construction and user testing of the new tactile arrays; 2) development of software to interface these displays with various portable and hand-held devices, such as C.A.Technology's own Portable Print Reading Device; and 3) preliminary design of manufacturing tools and facilities. In the mid-seventies, the appearance of the first electronic Braille displays changed the lives of blind individuals. Today, many have immediate and selective tactile access to textual information through refreshable electronic Braille displays. However, the high cost of these devices still severely limits their diffusion. By reducing their cost, their size and their weight, this new technology will increase the market penetration of Braille displays, making them accessible to many more blind and deaf-blind individuals and significantly improve their employment opportunities. Access to graphic symbols widely used for example in mathematics, chemistry and access to plain graphics is still only possible through slow, bulky and very costly graphic embossers. If a picture is "worth a thousand words", then a compact, low cost refreshable graphic tactile display proffers a significant new opportunity for the lives of blind students, blind engineers, blind physicists and blind people involved in almost any intellectual activity. In addition, it will also be important to those with low vision.