Design and Analysis of Vietnamese Braille Printer for Visual Impaired

The Braille printer is a revolutionary assistive technology designed to efficiently cater to the needs of the visually impaired. It converts digital text and graphics into embossed Braille, granting easy access to printed materials. With advanced features like high-quality embossing, user-friendly interfaces, seamless connectivity, and support for tactile graphics, this state-of-the-art Braille printer significantly improves the quality of life and opportunities for visually impaired individuals. This paper presents a simple, low-cost, and easy-to-operate Braille printer, developed through a comprehensive review of relevant literature and an exploration of its design and development process. The printer head is constructed using an Electromagnet mechanism, the movements of the printer axis are driven by the stepper motors, and the main processing unit is an Arduino board. The printer's performance is appraised through expert opinion in the field of Braille text.

I. Introduction

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 285 million people worldwide suffer from visual impairment, of which 39 million are blind and 246 million have low vision[1]. While hearing impaired people can be trained to gain speaking ability using a vocalization system [2], visually impaired individuals face significant challenges in accessing information and educational materials due to the dominance of printed texts and visual media in our society. Braille, a tactile writing system, has been a vital tool for the blind to read and write, enabling them to access literature, education, and communication on par with sighted individuals. However, the traditional Braille production process has its limitations, including the time-consuming manual embossing, high costs, and limited availability of Braille materials[3].