B-Reader: The Braille Kindle
Our device serves as an interface between a blind person and a computer. Ascii characters are converted to braille for the reader to interpret on our device. It works by moving metal rods vertically through a surface lined with holes to recreate a braille character. A python application allows the user to paste text into the stream box to be sent over serial communication to the device. These bytes translate to commands for each pin telling them to be either up or down. The characters are displayed on the device at the rate specified by the slider in the python application. We have a range of 1 to 4 characters per second.
The frame was made out of 1/2 inch wood. We cut it down to form a 6 inch by the 4-inch rectangular box. It was glued together and the servos were placed on a 1/2 inch square rod. Next, using a generic hook up wire, we twisted two pieces together to form a connecting rod. The connecting rod translated the rotational motion from the servos to the lateral motion pushrods. The connecting rods were soldering to the push rods and the opposite ends were hooked into the servo arms.
Our device serves as an interface between a blind person and a computer. Ascii characters are converted to braille for the reader to interpret on our device. It works by moving metal rods vertically through a surface lined with holes to recreate a braille character. A python application allows the user to paste text into the stream box to be sent over serial communication to the device. These bytes translate to commands for each pin telling them to be either up or down. The characters are displayed on the device at the rate specified by the slider in the python application. We have a range of 1 to 4 characters per second.
The frame was made out of 1/2 inch wood. We cut it down to form a 6 inch by the 4-inch rectangular box. It was glued together and the servos were placed on a 1/2 inch square rod. Next, using a generic hook up wire, we twisted two pieces together to form a connecting rod. The connecting rod translated the rotational motion from the servos to the lateral motion pushrods. The connecting rods were soldering to the push rods and the opposite ends were hooked into the servo arms.
An issue we ran into was serial communication from the python program to the Arduino. It takes an array of bytes but were passing in a byte at a time.
While wiring in the servo motors to the braille pins we ran into an issue of our solder joints breaking on the moving arms. To solve this we applied more heat to make sure it wasn't a cold joint. If we would redo this we would make the system smaller by using solenoids instead of servo motors. |
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