A portable device for optically recognizing Braille. I. Hardware development

This is the first of a pair of papers that describe a prototype portable device for optically scanning embossed Braille and conversion of the scanned text to binary Braille representation. This prototype has been developed in conjunction with the Association for the Blind (WA). An application to convert the literary Braille code to expanded text has also been implemented and is described in part II. The system developed utilises a hand held scanner that captures the embossed Braille image, in real time, via a linear 128-pixel CCD array. A Texas Instruments digital signal processor performs recognition processing.