Real- Time Speech-to-Braille Conversion Tablet for the Visually Impaired

This paper presents the development of a cost-effective, refreshable Braille tablet designed to provide real-time speech-to-Braille conversion for visually impaired users. Current Braille displays are often limited by high costs and complex mechanical structures, restricting accessibility for a wider audience. Our proposed solution integrates a dual camshaft mechanism driven by servo motors, each controlling a set of three Braille dots. This design enables the display to generate any Braille character through a combination of eight unique dot configurations set at 45-degree intervals on the camshaft. Speech input is captured via a microphone and processed by a Raspberry Pi Zero using speech recognition libraries, which transcribe spoken language into text. The text is then mapped to corresponding Braille patterns, allowing for dynamic, real-time tactile feedback. By utilizing low-cost hardware and efficient motor actuation, this system offers an affordable and scalable option for real-time audio-to-tactile conversion, enhancing accessibility for the visually impaired community. Experimental results demonstrate the tablet's effectiveness in accurately representing spoken input in Braille.