The Digidot: A Low-Cost, Haptic-Enabled Implementation of the Braille Writing Device

Today's technology enables a wealth of opportunities, but, oftentimes, many blind individuals are unable to benefit from these resources. Modern technology tends to rely on visual interactions, and the technologies that have been created to adapt these interactions to a non-visual medium remain prohibitively expensive. This project aims to develop a more attainable alternative so that all who are visually impaired can benefit from the digital domain. The core product is the Digidot: an electronic Perkins-layout Braille writing device that distills the core functionality of existing digital braillewriter technology along with new, innovative features into a financially accessible package. It allows characters to be input in Braille, translated to English, and transmitted to any device with which the Digidot is paired. As part of the Braille-to-English translation, an algorithm is implemented that allows consideration of user-configured abbreviations. To enable this functionality, an app was developed that allows creation and modification of abbreviations, and which syncs the abbreviations with the Digidot. This paper details the project's implementation and outcomes.