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Tactile PC Image Device

Uniplan Ltd., a maker of welfare service equipment, has developed a 'tactile display' that enables the blind and people with severely impaired vision to recognize images and characters formed by protruding pins in response to data input with a personal computer.

The horizontal display creates images and characters by raising or lowering by one millimeter the 3,000 plastic pins on its surface, which the blind can recognize by touch, Uniplan said.

The computer controlling the display discerns images and characters input or drawn with the computer's keyboard, mouse or scanner, and the display arranges pin formations in just 18 seconds, the company told a news conference. The space between each pin is 2.5 mm.

Uniplan said it will start selling the display – measuring 16 centimetres in width and 12 cm in length - by March 31, 2005 at a low price to facilitate worldwide sales.

The company said it plans to further improve the display so that it can project images and text on Internet sites onto the display.

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