Data for all: Tactile graphics that light up with picture-perfect resolution

Abstract

People who are blind do not have access to graphical data and imagery produced by science. This exclusion complicates learning and data sharing between sighted and blind persons. Because blind people use tactile senses to visualize data (and sighted people use eyesight), a single data format that can be easily visualized by both is needed. Here, we report that graphical data can be three-dimensionally printed into tactile graphics that glow with video-like resolution via the lithophane effect. Lithophane forms of gel electropherograms, micrographs, electronic and mass spectra, and textbook illustrations could be interpreted by touch or eyesight at ≥79% accuracy ( n = 360). The lithophane data format enables universal visualization of data by people regardless of their level of eyesight.

Universal pictures: A lithophane codex helps teenagers with blindness visualize nanoscopic systems

“…4 and 5). The identity of each reaction was indicated with a unique tactile code in the upper righthand corner; however, quick-response (QR) codes can also be printed into lithophanes (6). After trial and error of printing different sizes of lithophanes, a final size was used with physical dimensions of 13.3 to 14.4 cm in width and 13.6 to 21.0 cm in length.…”

“…For the models constructed from the Form 3B+ printer, 3D prints were fabricated in the same method as previously described by Koone et al (6). All models were made using the Form 3B+ printer; however, for the SEM diagram, an Ultimaker S3 was used.…”

“…Approximately 253 million people currently have blindness or low vision, including 1.4 million children with blindness (1,2). People with blindness face barriers accessing the tools and information of science (3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8), especially within the "central" science of chemistry (9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). Chemistry, blind persons have been told, is too difficult, too dangerous, and too visual (14,15).…”

Programmable photochemical deoxygenation for 2.5D grayscale printing

“…Grayscale 2.5-dimension (2.5D) printing for relief structures with controllably variable heights has garnered applications including tactile picture books, 1 optical devices, 2 and bio-patterning. 3 In this context, radical polymerization of acrylate-type monomers induced by blue light is so far the most popular and efficient approach towards 2.5D and 3D printing technologies.…”

These tools help visually impaired scientists read data and journals

“…Experiencing data through touch can be especially powerful, says Mona Minkara, a computational chemist and bioengineer at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, who began to lose her vision as a young child. Minkara collaborated on a 2022 study 4 that described representing data as 3D-printed graphics called litho phanes. Produced from plastic thin enough for light to shine through, lithophanes can encode multiple forms of chemical and life-science data -for example, a scanning electron micrograph of a butterfly wing, the bands of an electrophoresis gel or the ultraviolet spectrum of a protein.…”