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Graphic tactile display

While audio read-out software has made it easier for blind people to access text-based information on computers, graphics have remained a hurdle. A new device installed at the Osaka Prefectural Central Library allows blind PC users to read graphic information via a tactile display that can approximate an image on a Windows screen using 3,072 pop-up plastic pins, each 1.6 mm in diameter.

The display fits on a 19 cm by 14 cm screen, providing visual information via pins that protrude 0.7 mm. The display has a 16 times zoom function, meaning users can get in close and touch small kanji. The screen can also be scrolled vertically and horizontally using touch panels on the display.

The device was developed by Saitama Prefecture-based manufacturer KGS Corp. and the National Space Development Agency of Japan to enable a blind researcher at NASDA to monitor a satellite control system. The faculty of engineering at the University of Tokyo uses the display for research purposes. According to a KGS official, the device is expensive because each unit of the tactile display is assembled by hand. The library has been providing volunteer-based reading services for the blind since 1974. In 2000, it acquired an optical character reader, which scans a book, converts it to audio and reads it back.

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