Active Tactile Control is the Future for Braille Displays

With Active Tactile Control (ATC), each individual Braille-dot of a Braille display can give feedback to the computer on the amount of pressure put on the dot. This new HandyTech technology allows speed-reading, auto scroll and the possibility to analyze reading behavior.

The HandyTech Modular Evolution Braille Display announced at SightCity on May 17 in Frankfurt, Germany, is the first Braille display with this new technology. SightCity is one of the most important European assistive technology tradeshows for people with a visual impairment and the ATC technology was one of the new developments announced at this tradeshow.

The patent-pending ATC technology enables the user to control the PC directly while in the reading position on the Braille display. This opens up a whole new world of controlling a PC for blind and visually impaired users. With the help of ATC, words or letters for example can be announced by the speech output. ATC even recognizes when the current line has been read completely and automatically scrolls to the next line without requiring the user to press the reading keys. ATC is able to reliably recognize the reading position, even if several fingers are on the Braille display.

Active Tactile Control allows new screen-reading features. Automatic scrolling is one of the newly introduced functions at the HandyTech Modular Evolution display. It allows scrolling to the next position after a user has read the current line. Another feature is speed reading, which starts speech at the touch of the first letter of a word and allows custom speed reading for users, thus benefiting advanced and early Braille readers alike. If this is not enough, ATC will allow spelling on reading a word backwards, reading single characters and words announcement at the end of a line. All reading behaviour can be stored and analyzed, which is especially useful in teaching environments where users learn Braille.

After years of shirking Braille displays and adding note-taker and wireless features, HandyTech bring the first real Braille display innovation in years. The success of the ATC technology will be tied with the screen-reader’s options to interact with the new Braille displays. With a universal driver, HandyTech hopes to access the multiple screen-reader and create a foundation for this new technology.

Source: HandyTech