• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.137-142
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• 2007

In an information-oriented society, visually impaired persons also should obtain the information with relative ease. They tend to receive the information of letters by tactile sensation through braille display systems. Several types of braille display systems have been suggested so far, but none of them have been widely used yet. The braille display system should provide multiple lines of braille units to improve the level of understanding. In this paper, we propose a cell type braille unit with $3{\times}2$ dots, each of which consists of a piezoelectric linear motor. A braille cell is small and lightweight enough to be portable, and it can be easily assembled in multiple lines. The preliminary tests using the proposed braille display system show that it can provide the information that can be well perceived by visually impaired persons.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.739-747
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• 2011

Objective: The present study evaluated information presentation methods applicable to a wearable Braille display in terms of performance and satisfaction measures. Background: A Braille display wearable at a finger can improve accessibility of information for the blind by presenting information in real time. Method: A Braille display with six pins operated by DC servomotors was developed to simulate four information presentation methods(active, stationary, simultaneous, and sequential methods). An evaluation experiment was conducted with 16 participants(8 normal and 8 blind participants) by using three objective measures(reaction time, RT, unit: sec; recognition time, CT, unit: sec; correct response percentage, CP) and two subjective measures(overall satisfaction, OS; perception easiness, PE) with a 7-point scale. Results: The average RTs and CTs of the active and stationary methods were significantly shorter than those of the simultaneous and sequential methods for the blind participants. Also, the average CPs, OSs, and PEs of the active and sequential methods were significantly higher than those of the stationary and simultaneous methods. Conclusion: The active and sequential methods were preferred to the other methods for the blind. Application: The performance characteristics identified in the present study for the four braille display methods can be utilized to develop an effective wearable Braille display system.

• Journal of rehabilitation welfare engineering & assistive technology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2010

Research and development of Assistive Technology (AT) for blind people is primarily focused on assisting mobility and improving access to information. Some particularly useful devices for aiding access to information and communication are DAISY players used with talking books, screen readers for reading screens, video magnifiers to aid low vision, Braille displays, and Braille PDAs. These essential devices have been successfully commercialized and have assisted many visually impaired people. Assistive technology devices for visually impaired people are called sensory substitution devices, because these devices substitute tactile or auditory functions for visual functions. The tactile interfaces of sensory substitution devices such as Braille displays and Braille PDAs have a bimorph type of piezoelectric actuator that forms a Braille (pin) of the Braille cells by moving up and down. KGS Corporation of Japan has more than 80% share of the worldwide market for these Braille cell actuators. Commercializing it for the first time in the world. This paper reviews the various endeavors in Japan in the research and development of tactile displays, such as Braille displays and Braille PDAs. Furthermore, it discusses sensory substitution devices that use tactile displays, focusing especially on the rotating Braille display we have developed.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.961-970
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• 2004

Tactile sensation is one of the most important sensory functions along with the auditory sensation for the visually impaired since it replaces the visual one of the persons with sight. In this paper, we present a tactile display device as a dynamic Braille display that is the unique tool f3r exchanging information among them. The tactile cell of the Braille display proposed is based on the dielectric elastomer, which is one of the electroactive polymers. It has advantageous features over the existing ones with respect to intrinsic softness, ease of fabrication, cost effectiveness and miniaturization. We introduce a new idea for actuation as well as additional considerations such as the driving circuit that makes it possible to drive multiple tactile cells in a high speed. Also, we describe the actuating mechanism of the Braille pin in details capable of realizing the enhanced spatial density of the tactile cells. Finally, results of psychophysical experiments are given to evaluate its effectiveness.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 1998.10a
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• pp.829-832
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• 1998

In this paper, We have developed the Internet web browser for the blind and visually impaired person. The Internet Web browser system consists of personal computer connected to Internet, braille display, voice synthesis devices for character information, tactile display for the representation of web image and braille printer for web page printing. We convert character in the web page to braille and print it to braille display. The image in the web page is printed with tactile display actuated by solenoid. The blind can acess the Internet web site with this web browser system and understand the Internet information.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea CI
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2011

In this paper, we propose a haptic display system that can convert Braille and tactual map(braille map) to tactile information recognizable through sense of touch almost in real-time. The proposed system consists of a haptic display hardware device, which actually delivers tactile signal to visually impaired people, and a device control software program, which converts Braille and tactile information to tactile signal and transfers it to the hardware device. Experimental evaluations of the proposed system were performed with 10 visually impaired persons. Experimental results show that the proposed system can provide similar Braille recognition rate and speed to those of existing Braille information devices. In addition, the proposed system converts tactile information to tactile signal under maximum 1.1 seconds, so that it can provide graphic information in almost real-time which is not possible with existing tactile devices, such as Braille printer.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.9 no.8
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• pp.592-599
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• 2003

As one of the Principal modalities of human sensation, tactile feel is prerequisite for building wide variety of applications such as telemanipulation, virtual reality and medical engineering. A dynamic Braille display device based on a polymer actuator is presented. The actuator, often called artificial muscle actuator has advantageous features over the existing methods in terms of intrinsic softness, ease of fabrication, cost-effectiveness and miniaturization. The principles of actuation with dielectric elastomer is introduced, and necessary considerations on the design of a tactile display device are discussed. The design of the device is described in detail including the fabrication process and driving electronics. Also, preliminary results of experiments are given to evaluate its performance.

• Journal of Internet of Things and Convergence
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.29-35
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• 2023

Braille can be said to be an essential means used for the visually impaired to communicate or acquire information on visual materials in their lives. However, the rate of interpretation of braille among the visually impaired is insignificant at 5%. As a result, libraries for the visually impaired produce various types of materials that can obtain various information for the visually impaired and also have assistive technology equipment to interpret them. However, the publication rate of Braille books is too low to purchase and interpret Braille books. In addition, the Braille interpretation rate is too low, and the purchase of assistive technology devices is too expensive and slow. Therefore, in this paper, we implemented a system that displays Braille using Arduino to help visually impaired people in addition to the existing methods they use to obtain information. For Braille display, Korean data is transmitted from Python through serial communication between Python and Arduino, and Arduino, which receives the data, compares the Korean data with the data in the array in the program and retrieves the Braille values of the Korean data. Here, the Braille value was expressed by controlling the servo motor perpendicular or horizontal to the body using white and black circles based on the Braille list.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.62 no.3
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• pp.387-394
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• 2013

A travel aid system for the visually impaired person is proposed by providing the position and heading information. The position and heading information is obtained from range difference localization estimator, and the information is notified to the visually impaired person by using braille display system. For the precise estimation of the position and heading information, we apply recently developed linear localization estimator which utilizes the instrumental variable method and the state augmentation method. The estimation results are compared with well-known Kalman filter through experiment.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 1999.06a
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• pp.559-562
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• 1999

In this paper, we developed on internet based assembly information display system for the blind. The system is consist of hardware and software. The hardware is consist of a voice synthesis device and a tactile display for character information, and the software is consist of internet web browser for the blind and braille program. The tactile-device system consists of a control unit, pin array, pin generator, serial port, and a power supply. The pin exerted by a electromagnetic method, solenoid. The internet web browser separates the character and image from internet web page, and character information in the web page is converted to braille and fed to sound system. Also the image in the web page can be printed developed tactile display. As the results of experiment, the blind could access the internet web site by using this system and understand various internet information.