Electromechanical Refreshable Braille Module : HackadayPrize 2023

Рет қаралды 117,397

9 ай бұрын

Source & Design files: hackaday.io/project/191181-el...
Like the project? buy me a coffee!☕: www.buymeacoffee.com/vjvarada
The big drawback to refreshable braille devices has always been their cost. The loose rule of estimation applied to these products has translated into something like $100 to $150 per braille cell. A 40-cell display, in other words, may cost $4,000 to $6,000, while an 80-cell model will cost $8,000 to $12,000. And so it has been that, while desirable, braille computer access has been out of reach for many users of assistive technology.
It is thus of great value to lower the cost of individual braille cells in order to manufacture Refreshable Braille Devices at a price that is affordable to the Visually Impared community.
While commercially available braille displays use expensive piezo-electric actuated pins. This project employs an electromechanical system with off-the-shelf and easily manufacturable components, leveraging the accessibility of high-quality 3D Printers and micro-magnets to keep the cost low without compromising functionality.
#HackadayPrize #hackadayprize #braille #assistivetechnology #assistivetech

Пікірлер: 561

@maesto 9 ай бұрын

FYI: You can get custom wound standing SMD inductors with specified cores. This way you'd not have to self wind the magnets. (Though you still could) and would probably barely increase cost while making manufacturing at scale a lot easier/vheaper.

@lbgstzockt8493 9 ай бұрын

What are the minimum order quantities for those?

@Eugensson 9 ай бұрын

I think Fishman owns the patent. What they do it they take several 16 layer PCBs, trace the coil, and sandwich these PCBs.

@vjvarada 9 ай бұрын

I got a quote from a company called Audemers (audemars.com/) for about 6000 Euros for an MOQ of 1000 coils. Im assuming there is a high initial setup cost. At a 20k MOQ, they can even provide SMT mounts that can be used on pick and place. Its good to know its possible, need to figure out the economics of it when scaling up.

@thorwaldjohanson2526 8 ай бұрын

Love this project. I can see a bunch of the core components being mass produced in higher quality and for cheap a bit down the line. Similar to the tiny magnets. The project being open source, I wouldn't be surprised if other talented engineers will contribute and improve upon the design

@user-cr4sc1ht9t 8 ай бұрын

Do they have to be customized to exact spec, in the first place?

@FilamentStories 9 ай бұрын

This is simply wonderful! Thank you for championing this very challenging space where the price point has always been so high due to complexity and low volume. Wow, I’m just blown away!

@vjvarada 9 ай бұрын

Thank you so much! I saw your video about it, thankyou for the shoutout! Your daughter inspires me to keep making this better!

@MrFox_Adventures 8 ай бұрын

Thank you for sharing it on your channel this is super cool!

@FilamentStories 8 ай бұрын

@@vjvaradaI’ve been following along, checking in every so often here. We were completely surprised our video has done so well, getting over a million views at this point. I was hopeful more people would come here to see your full video, or head over to your Hackaday page. I’m glad to see more views there than the last time I checked. My daughter is a little overwhelmed that she's been viewed over a million times on KZfaq! I’m hopeful she and I can do some more videos together on how 3D printing can be used as a tool to help enable or assist those with visual impairments. I don’t know if it there is anything we can do to help with your project, but if you have any ideas, please let us know. -Courtney

@vjvarada 7 ай бұрын

@@FilamentStories Thank you for your support as is! I've myself never had this many views or comments on KZfaq, it's getting harder to keep up! The project won the Hackaday Prize, so I had quite the time travelling to the US and back. There are a few people who have joined in to contribute to the project, and even a company threatening to sue for patent infringement (baseless claims dw, they can't stop me from releasing something non commercially). The magnitude of what I'm doing is just sinking in, over the next year I plan to refine to project to a finished product that can be manufactured in a decentralised way with 3D printing. Since both assistive devices for the blind and 3D printing is an intersection you are in as well, I'd love if you could just share our progress from time to time, to get enough of a community involved in the development and perhaps have parallel developments happen all across the world, since the tools to recreate these are accessible to all. Thanks again for the shoutout and checking back in, I'd love to stay in touch!

@shukrantpatil 7 ай бұрын

@@vjvarada hey I'm really curious about which resin you used. I guess the resin holds great importance

@uniworkhorse 8 ай бұрын

I had no idea that braille devices were so freakishly expensive. Great work, makes me wonder what other accessibility technologies can be reduced in cost and manufacturing. It's amazing that you were able to hit both of those in your design!

@bingbong9076 8 ай бұрын

It isnt because its expensive, its because they know they can rip off the disabled, this happens across almost all disabled marketed devices. Big props to Vijay for having some humanity.

@iFireender 8 ай бұрын

Well, thing is, most blind people - as far as I know - just use screen readers instead. You do not nead a braille display if you can get everything read to you. I'd guess braille displays are most often used in public places - where you don't have your own device, so you wouldn't know how to operate it easily.

@joachimfrank4134 8 ай бұрын

@@iFireenderone of my co-workers uses a braille line to read. I've seen her using it and think she reads faster than the speed a screen reader would talk. And she has her reader on some insane speed, so I could only hear gibberish when she uses it.

@iFireender 8 ай бұрын

@@joachimfrank4134 Huh, interesting. But yeah, I can see that being a thing. But my point still remains - where Braille readers once would have been indispensible, nowadays, it's just possible to set up most devices with proper accessibility modes for blind people, which decreases the market for braille readers even more, which in turn makes them more expensive.

@unliving_ball_of_gas 8 ай бұрын

@@joachimfrank4134The insane speed? Yep they're confirmed blind. Since blind people don't see (duh), a large part of their brain that is normally used for processing vision is instead repurposed for processing audio. So they can understand speech way faster than us.

@Dylan_Lanckman 9 ай бұрын

I cannot thank you enough for this. I'm literally crying sir. I'm an IoT student and my partner is blind. If this becomes widely available this opens doors for whole new systems for braille users.

@vjvarada 8 ай бұрын

It's so motivating to hear this, thankyou!

@profpuffofficial2 8 ай бұрын

i live to read stuff like this

@skilledcamman4752 8 ай бұрын

create one for urslef

@Jefferson-ly5qe 8 ай бұрын

Fantastic work Vijay, will be following this story closely!

@Dylan_Lanckman 8 ай бұрын

@@vjvarada no I thank you, much love from Belgium, sir!

@sail4life 9 ай бұрын

The rotating magnetic cam bi-stable design is sheer genius! What a great technology advancement. Awesome, simply awesome.

@vjvarada 8 ай бұрын

I wish i could take credit for being the first to come up with the idea of using cams, but here (worldwide.espacenet.com/patent/search/family/014715047/publication/JP2802257B2?q=pn%3DJP2802257B2) is a patent from 1996 that proposes an idea for using cams as well. Although very different in terms of design from the one I've created, its good news that a design that uses cams had been patented once and is now expired, meaning that its in the public domain!

@rahuls7039 8 ай бұрын

@@vjvarada The link is throwing of as *Invalid Query* ...

@jurgyy 8 ай бұрын

@@rahuls7039 Remove the last parenthesis from the url (or %29 if you have already opened the link)

@vjvarada 8 ай бұрын

@@rahuls7039 search for JP2802257B2 on the platform

@shukrantpatil 8 ай бұрын

@@vjvarada so now that it is in the public domain , is everyone else free to use this mechanism ?

@buff_lucio_boop 8 ай бұрын

POV you make a world-changing invention. Nice awesome amazing and incredible job! (all at the same time)

@vjvarada 8 ай бұрын

Wow, thanks! and thank you for subscribing too!

@lucianolizana446 9 ай бұрын

Man... this is amazing!... even if this does not get all the media attention for the hackaday prize, you should be sure about the importance of what you are doing... congrats from Santiago, Chile !

@vjvarada 9 ай бұрын

Thankyou!

@dillpickle7633 8 ай бұрын

Thank you for doing this! Being disabled should not be a burden of any type and you are one of the amazing people who are making the world more accessible for those who are disabled.

@vjvarada 8 ай бұрын

Thank you so much!

@shukrantpatil 5 ай бұрын

Hey can i know the voltage and current required to drive the coils ? @@vjvarada

@codingneko 8 ай бұрын

I fucking LOVE this. You people are the real force of change in this world thank fucking god for engineers like you who make stuff for humanity, and not for their own personal economic gain...

@toshibe2805 8 ай бұрын

This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time.

@estou_aqui-2361 8 ай бұрын

love to see this!!!

@bocarlsson3rd 8 ай бұрын

This is super awesome. It gives me so much hope for the future when cool people uses cheap and available technology to make life better for people. It reminds me of the guy who made super cheap and handpowered malaria testing kits or the guy who is creating a system for custom 3d-printed prosthetics. My dad have greatly reduced hearing and if we didn't live in a country with subsidized Healthcare he would never be able to afford hearing aides. So this kind of hits home. Dedicating time to make tools available and economically accessible to people is honorable and I hope this will lead to more funding so you can do good without worrying about your personal economy. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. The world need more people like you. /Bo Carlsson

@radishdalek 8 ай бұрын

The mechanism is genius. This will help so many - Thank you

@OstlerDev 9 ай бұрын

This is absolutely amazing! Great work, great engineering. It is always amazing to see an elegant solution presented to lower costs! I wonder if you could scale this up to the size of a small 300x300 pixel display. Over time it could even be used to display websites with Braille text substituted to allow even higher accessibility.

@vjvarada 9 ай бұрын

Thankyou! Im sure with more work, that would be possible to do! If we can automate the coil winding process, which is the most time consuming part of the system, we could do it affordably.

@henrychan720 9 ай бұрын

@@vjvarada Have you considered using high layer count PCBs for the coils? kzfaq.info/get/bejne/hL5nequi1picpYk.html&ab_channel=CarlBugeja

@Andreas-gh6is 9 ай бұрын

I don't think this is possible to a useful degree with that technology. The nature of haptic devices like this is that the user still needs to actively select the part of the device he is "listening" to, which also means the dots should be presented at higher resolution if used in 2D. If it's just multiple rows of braille, that's not that useful because you could as well "scroll" or navigate digitally. Those dots still consume quite a bit of room, especially because of the coil. If you make the dot smaller, it will get harder to manufacture, especially by hand. But the coil can't be made much weaker because it will need to have a minimum force to push that cam and overcome the resistance that provides the staticness of the dot. Additionally, the more coils there are per area, the more issues of parasitic currents, inductance or magnetic force occurs. A big 2D matrix of these coils may just not work the same way a single or double braille row would work.

@gingeral253 8 ай бұрын

Amazing innovation.

@pablopovescarrasco7692 8 ай бұрын

this is great! thank you very much

@iainburgess8577 8 ай бұрын

Holy hells! Thats Genius! Id played w a braile display improvement before; its a big need, and i couldn't crack it conceptually. You have!

@vjvarada 8 ай бұрын

Thankyou!!

@LordPfrog 8 ай бұрын

This is really freaking cool! Great project and great video summary!

@hobbycollector 8 ай бұрын

Very clever, such a good work. People like you make the world a better place

@sandwich2473 8 ай бұрын

This is really very cool thank you for putting the time into making such an amazing device

@RedLamentations 8 ай бұрын

This is truly a pinnacle of innovation, taking something and making it better and cheaper. You have the heart and mind of a generation

@Xiltch 8 ай бұрын

This is amazing. I love seeing these kind of projects that are the complete opposite from the normal greed that drives most manufactoring to benefit a group of people.

@Lena-qg8bd 8 ай бұрын

wow thank you for this, it is really good and refreshing to see this type of engineering on here. subscribed right away

@Deebofreebo 8 ай бұрын

Wow. You are a hero. This will change lives.

@bunnybreaker 8 ай бұрын

This warms my heart. OpenSource is the future 🔥🔥🔥

@idontwantahandlethough 8 ай бұрын

THIS IS SO COOL! You are the man, Vijay 🤗

@raxathor 8 ай бұрын

Awesome, so cool!

@vjvarada 8 ай бұрын

Thankyou!

@Scyth3934 8 ай бұрын

Wow!!!! This is a brilliant invention and I'm sure it will be really useful to the blind!

@strangeke7750 8 ай бұрын

This is great! You’re doing something awesome my dude. Good luck!

@googleyoutubechannel8554 8 ай бұрын

The cam bit is the genius here over previous designs, well done.

9 ай бұрын

You are a true hero, even if you do nothing else for the rest of your life!

@vjvarada 9 ай бұрын

Quite a heavy apreciation, thank you so much!

@Yamthief 8 ай бұрын

Amazing work! This doesn't directly affect me, but you're doing an amazing service to humanity.

@etmax1 8 ай бұрын

You are a gem, I take my hat off to you.

@vjvarada 8 ай бұрын

Thankyou!

@kipchickensout 8 ай бұрын

I know nobody that is blind but I probably got this recommended because at some point I was interested in some of that stuff, and I didn't know they were this damn expensive! That's a very nice project you got there!

@benbonnell1930 9 ай бұрын

this is so excellent, great work!

@finn3721 8 ай бұрын

This is one of the most ingenious ideas that ive seen in quite a while. Well deserved win!

@plinkage 8 ай бұрын

just yesterday i was thinking how cool it would be if you could passively learn braille by somehow having it display subtitles of videos watched. this is dope.

@Studio23Media 8 ай бұрын

This is so cool!! You're making the world a better place.

@almosthuman4457 8 ай бұрын

Very cool

@jjbc5059 8 ай бұрын

Genius!!! Awesome project! I hope you'll keep working on it and make life easier for a lot of people who need this👏👏

@jakobfindlay4136 8 ай бұрын

Beautiful work bringing cost down I had no idea a decent model was like $3,000

@coco805 8 ай бұрын

Wow I had no idea braille cells were so expensive. Your design changes wtih the eccentric cam are very clever!

@rafaelguida2317 9 ай бұрын

Not only it's effective, but brilliant and beautiful purpose! Hope this becomes the new standard !

@lazyidealist 8 ай бұрын

Incredible breakthrough. So inspiring. thank god I found this channel.

@designator7402 9 ай бұрын

Oh, that is a very clever solution. Excellent work!

@frankmyers4736 8 ай бұрын

this man will change so many lives. bravo!

@CaptainFalcon92 Ай бұрын

Future award winning project i hope

@FortWhenTeaThyme 8 ай бұрын

I'm so glad to see this! I've been doing research on the side to create exactly this after seeing how stupidly expensive these braille readers are.

@2011killjoy 8 ай бұрын

Commenting for the sole purpose of boosting this video. This is actually incredible and you have done a service to humanity. I'm not blind or visually impaired but still, from everyone, thank you.

@SolidIncMedia 8 ай бұрын

My wife, one of her brothers, her mum and my coworker's wife are all visually impaired, and I'm often disgusted at how expensive anything "for the blind" can be, whether it's just a magnifying glass that costs three times as much as the exact same one on AliExpress, or software to help blind people navigate computers, or mobility canes, it sucks that the people who need them can't actually get them because of stupidly high costs. Thank you for making these modules. I hope they really take off and are used everywhere because everyone deserves access to information.

@niajmorshed8245 8 ай бұрын

❤ Amazing work

@user-gc5wd1bf7c 9 ай бұрын

Awesome Work!!!!!

@rustyhauler6477 8 ай бұрын

Excellent work

@Willow1w 9 ай бұрын

thank you for making the world a better place

@PaulSpades 9 ай бұрын

I was also thinking about actuator solutions for braille cell displays last week. That cam mechanism locking the pins in place is definitely better than anything I could come up with, well done! And the rest of the engineering and electronics looks good. Great work!

@vjvarada 9 ай бұрын

Thankyou so much!

@The_BrickYT 9 ай бұрын

Glad you finally came back!

@KD-_- 8 ай бұрын

This is awesome work

@jjlyon100 9 ай бұрын

amazing!!! :)

@danielmichalski94 8 ай бұрын

This idea has huge potential. Thank you for making it real - it's an important step towards electronic devices fully prepared for blind people.

@ooocarneiro 8 ай бұрын

Wonderful!!! Congratulations!

@agasa_workshop 8 ай бұрын

This is just awesome!

@richard25473 8 ай бұрын

Thank you for spendig this much time making something that’s (potentally) life changing!

@tread140 8 ай бұрын

More people need to see this.

@ripedroso 9 ай бұрын

Great project! Helping the world a best place!

@letsdragthecave2017 9 ай бұрын

This is crazy. Thank you for this

@MPHammy98 9 ай бұрын

This is a really cool idea!!

@Ernzt8 9 ай бұрын

I cannot imagine not be able to use my sight. Technology like this must be in reach for every one who needs it. Great invention!!!

@xenontesla122 9 ай бұрын

Amazing! I would’ve thought that there would already be low cost braille devices, but all the devices are surprisingly expensive. Thank you for having the thoughtfulness to make this!

@vjvarada 9 ай бұрын

Thankyou!

@shariqueansari2959 5 ай бұрын

Simply amazing. Thanks for making it.

@MikeF1189 9 ай бұрын

Wow, good job!

@giatomm 8 ай бұрын

This is an incredible work!

@Jdog1681 9 ай бұрын

Hardcore man. Amazing work

@flatline-timer 8 ай бұрын

Incredible!

@Argosh 9 ай бұрын

What a wonderful project! Thank you for making the world better!

@ifixmixers 6 ай бұрын

INCREDIBLY INGENIOUS DESIGN *cue applause* ❤

@vishva8kumara 8 ай бұрын

This is something I have been thinking for a long time, but never took initiative. True, there is not a big market for this. Your manufacturing process is very good.!~

@Thekidfromcalifornia2.0 8 ай бұрын

Omg this shit me me so happy. I love what people are doing and take control themselves

@user-ly3nk6hc1x 8 ай бұрын

This changes everything. Good job!

@TenForceFalls 8 ай бұрын

Mans a legend helping out impaired people!

@happyloper 8 ай бұрын

I did a training course for computer instructors for the blind. It was the first time I met them and learned a lot. Everything is expensive, not only the braille display. This is something that was really needed, and I can't wait to make one and deliver it to a blind person myself! Thank you, developer.

@irkedoff 9 ай бұрын

This is awesome❣️

@ericlotze7724 9 ай бұрын

Absolutely Amazing! *Another* Application of Cams and as you said it’s almost like a 3D Flip Dot! Accesible technology is HUGE too. My hands are probably a bit too shakey from my essential tremor to make these, but maybe with a Makerspace, or buying on Crowd Supply / Tindy i could get some for local schools. I know my elementary had a specialized department for assisting kids with disabilities so things like this mag be of use! Again I can’t state enough how amazing this work is, and I’m excited to see where this goes and potentially collaborate!

@vjvarada 8 ай бұрын

Thank you so much! I hope to make the design easier to build over time. You can check the project page for updates: hackaday.io/project/191181-electromechanical-refreshable-braille-module

@Alidolado 8 ай бұрын

This is so important and incredible im so happy people have acess to these research and models and can slowly but surely build towards accessibility on tools and resources to everybody regardless of their financial condition! We need to guarantee more access to (ironicaly) accessibility tools around the world regardless of finances, social class etc and being one step closer and knewing that pepople are doing this fill me with joy and hope. I probably didnt wrote this properly but i couldnt not congratulate you.

@aliengeo 9 ай бұрын

Holy shit. This is really interesting to see and I hope refining this and distributing it goes well. Braille access is literacy access.

@iamninja435 8 ай бұрын

Incredible work Vijay.

@slouch186 8 ай бұрын

The rotating cam mechanism makes so much sense that it seems obvious in retrospect. Great project!

@TheLaserFish 8 ай бұрын

Very impressive! Thanks for sharing

9 ай бұрын

HOLY SHIT, this is so cool thanks bro

@Goodish_night 8 ай бұрын

I don't know anyone who is blind or reads braile, but man you're doing incredible good and lofe changing work. God bless you man, i can't imagine how many peoples lives you'll change if this is widely adopted

@helmutzollner5496 8 ай бұрын

Wow! Great project.

@vjvarada 8 ай бұрын

Thank you! Cheers!

@BBayjay 9 ай бұрын

This is brilliant, your goals are admirable. I love it!

@junoestro 9 ай бұрын

this is amazing. thank you so much for making this

@freeemailssuck6848 7 ай бұрын

This is excellent. You have done an awesome job and I hope it takes off.

@barry-allan 8 ай бұрын

Thank you so much for designing this, I've been thinking about how to make on of these for years. but you finally put it into the world. you have the peoples support, can't wait to see what comes from this.

@random147555 8 ай бұрын

Stuff like this keeps me optimistic! Thank you for your contributions to humanity, bro!

@rcmaniac25 9 ай бұрын

That is amazing! Simple an effective is just what this kind of tech needs.

@vjvarada 9 ай бұрын

Thankyou!

@AliyevRashid 8 ай бұрын

I worked on such mechanism since 2017, but, unfortunately haven't had enough funding and good engineering team that time. Good luck to you, on your project!

@aldopro23rex 8 ай бұрын

There are lots and lots of valuable inputs to the electronics industry running for the prize but I honestly think the humanitarian aspect of this project trumps over the ingenuity of many other ones. Exceptional execution of a simple yet most overlooked idea. Awesome!