BrailleRing: a flexible Braille display

Abstract

The “BrailleRing” is a refreshable Braille display that allows blind people to read tactile characters on the inside of a rotating ring. Dots are not displayed by moving pins, but by fixed patterns on rotating cuboids. The concept allows for a flexible line-length as well as for a more robust and easy-to-clean device, because it needs far fewer actuators than piezo-electric Braille displays, and these actuators are mechanically isolated from the Braille cells.