This specification generally discloses an apparatus, system and method for refreshable braille display. The apparatus can include a first base having a contact surface and a plurality of cavities. The contact surface can be configured to receive fingertips. The plurality of cavities can be recessed from the contact surface. A plurality of pins can be housed within the plurality of cavities and configured to move in the plurality of cavities to selectively extend from the contact surface of the first base. A plurality of solenoids can be configured to at least partially operably connect to the plurality of pins. A controller can be configured to selectively provide a first electric current to the plurality of solenoids to generate first magnetic fields through the plurality of solenoids. The first magnetic fields can be configured to selectively move the plurality of pins to extend from the contact surface of the first base.

The present invention is directed to a haptic system of rotating cylindrical shafts topped with caps to create a virtual sensation of Braille text by integrating a microprocessor with microdrive motors. The micro drive's shafts are crowned with plastic cylindrical caps, the top face of which are precisely flush or level with the device's display surface thereby emulating the standard diameter and feel of a Braille dot or Braille space in two dimensions. It is the rotation of the drive's shaft that spins the caps and simulates the sensation of a Braille dot that is felt with the fingertips. This sensation of a two dimensional rotating dot is the result of the top face of the capped shafts positioned flush with the device's display surface. Motors that alternate between rotating shafts and shafts at rest produce Braille cell dots and spaces, respectively.

Provided is a tactile display tablet capable of stably and fast driving a braille display, which includes: a control unit generating a tactile map including information on entire tactile pixels based on output data of a connected user terminal or output data of a self-driven application; a tactile divider unit extracting differential data on the tactile map based on a difference between a tactile map currently received from the control unit and a previously received tactile map, and generating first division differential maps by dividing the differential data; a first slave unit configured to generate second division differential maps by dividing the first division differential maps; a second slave unit generating third division differential maps by dividing the second division differential maps; and a third slave unit for implementing a tactile display according to the entire tactile pixels based on the third division differential maps.

The system according to the invention for haptic interaction with virtual objects comprises a visualisation unit for visualising virtual objects and the user's hand, a haptic output unit for reproducing haptic impressions at least by means of force feedback on fingertips of the user's hand, and a data processing unit for processing input data and controlling the visualisation unit and the output unit. The output unit has at least two movement-coupled segments of the interaction region, a finger-based positioning system, and a global positioning system, as well as a sensor system and actuator system. The movement-coupled segments are designed as touch surfaces, and each movement-coupled segment is assigned to one fingertip of the user's hand and can be moved by the latter. The position of the fingertip on the movement-coupled segment can be changed. The sensor system is used to detect the position of the movement-coupled segment with respect to the virtual object and the contact forces between the movement-coupled segments and the fingertips of the user's hand, while the actuator system serves for positioning the movement-coupled segments with respect to the virtual object and for exerting contact forces on the fingertips of the user's hand by means of the movement-coupled segments. A base reference plane for the force feedback is assigned to the haptic output unit.

A method comprises inputting an audio signal into a machine learning circuit to compress the audio signal into a sequence of actuator signals. The machine learning circuit being trained by: receiving a training set of acoustic signals and pre-processing the training set of acoustic signals into pre-processed audio data. The pre-processed audio data including at least a spectrogram. The training further includes training the machine learning circuit using the pre-processed audio data. The neural network has a cost function based on a reconstruction error and a plurality of constraints. The machine learning circuit generates a sequence of haptic cues corresponding to the audio input. The sequence of haptic cues is transmitted to a plurality of cutaneous actuators to generate a sequence of haptic outputs.

Disclosed herein are example embodiments of systems and methods of braille transceiving. A braille input output transceiving device (BIOTD) comprises a transceiving module configured to receive braille codes, encode the braille codes into DTMF tones, and transmit the DTMF tones. The BIOTD enables transmission over various types of media, including audio DTMF tones and any networked communication device that can accept audio tones in the appropriate format.

Provided is a stereoscopic surface display device including a stereoscopic display unit having a cell area, wherein the stereoscopic display unit includes a first flexible layer, a first optical waveguide and a first optical output unit in the first flexible layer, wherein the first optical output unit are disposed in the cell area, a first light source disposed on a side of the stereoscopic display unit, wherein the first optical waveguide connects the first light source and the first optical output unit, a first photothermal response layer on the first flexible layer, wherein the first photothermal response layer is configured to receive output light emitted from the first optical output unit and emit thermal energy, and a shape deformation layer on the first photothermal response layer, wherein the shape deformation layer is configured to generate bending deformation by receiving the thermal energy from the first photothermal response layer.

A refreshable Braille display that connects to computers and serves as a computer monitor for sight impaired people. Integrated within the display are mechanical pins that are activated by either stationary or mobile actuators, such as coils or solenoids. These pins either move rotationally or vertically when activated by the actuators. Spacing of these pins is tight enough to display graphics. Additionally, the pins are arranged such that various heights of the pins enable 3D graphics.

A method for generating three dimensional indicators for the visually impaired. The method includes selecting one or more pre-designed symbols from a plurality of pre-designed symbols. The pre-designed symbols represent standard building layout features and are sized to be readable via a physical touch. The method further includes inserting the one or more selected symbols into a two dimensional digital layout, and generating one or more of an orientation object and a legend object into the two dimensional digital layout. The method further includes converting the two dimensional digital layout into a three dimensional digital model, and generating an output file including the three dimensional model in a format compatible with a three dimensional printing device.

Proposed is an identification code for visually impaired people on printed matter to enable people with visual impairments to understand the information printed on the packaging or the contained product's information. In terms of printed matter with this identification code for visually impaired people, the identification code for visually impaired people is readable by a mobile device that has a camera and a specified code reading function, is displayed on the surface of the printed material, has Braille-like convex points projecting outward at multiple points around the identification code for visually impaired people, and has a predetermined distance from center to center of each convex point that is greater than the distance from center to center in the most laterally separated raised dots in adjacent Braille cells.