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New Graphic Displays for the Blind
An anonymous reader writes "Researchers from Spain have invented a new mechanism for graphical tactile displays for the blind. The displays use metallic films featuring various shape memory alloys which are produced layer by layer on silicon wafers using thin film technology. Display pixels are generated when the metallic film adjusts its curvature partially, similarly to bimetal snap plates for temperature switches. The movement of the films is then transferred to the touch panel via plastic pins und thus can be detected by the user."
I'm not sure that the impact of color could be interpreted easily with texture. Consider what it would be like if you tried to explain music to the deaf - The lyrics (if they exist) can be translated, the beat pattern and rhythm can be translated, but translating major, minor, augmented and diminished 7ths alone would fall short. Mathematically I can talk about ratios of 12th roots of 2, and poetically I can talk about "wholeness" and "loneliness" - but adding them all up would take a genius, if the person didn't have the experience of hearing (or, to put it another way, some of the interpretation is hardware-based).
Now, I can try to translate color into music, but that fails due to its dimensional nature - imagine trying to explain a theme with variations, where each different variation is played by a different player with spatial seperation - there aren't good enough words, and for the tone-deaf, it would still be useless.
Not solenoids but piezzo crystals which fliop the pins.
Braille displays are damned expensive. an 80-cell
braill display can cost up to $15,000. They are
quite reliable. The one I'm using at the moment has
worked fine for the last 12 years. I'd be interested to know
what the reliability of this new tech. is like. The display I used
previously used solenoids and needed maintenance every few months.
If you brush your hand over your keyboard or mousepad and close your eyes can you not construct an image?
Do you really think such an ability is only the relm of the sighted?
Certainly they with no sight will have a different image, but will it be any less nuanced?
You're using the terminology of the seeing. I'm not blind; I have no idea what goes on in their minds. But, I imagine if they've never seen with their eyes, then they wouldn't have a "picture" of the keyboard, they would have a mental map. And it would be different than how we comprehend our own mental "images" of things.
Let's think about things that you never actually see. For instance, what is your image of what a headache looks like? Assuming you've never seen a picture of it, what does a stomach look like? After all, you have one in your body, and you've certainly felt it at times in your life.
Here's a slightly more risque one: if you're a guy, ever been inside a lady? Would you be able to draw what the inside of *that* lady looked like just by how it felt? I doubt it. But I'm sure you have a mental map of it.
Or more banal: ever stuck a q-tip in your ear canal? Would you be able to draw what it looks like? Possibly not, even though you've traced its contours with the q-tip. And yes, I know no one should ever stick a q-tip in there, but everyone does it.
Karma: Chevy Kavalierma.