THE WHATIS.COM WORD-OF-THE-DAY May 14, 2002 Braille display ______________ TODAY'S SPONSOR: VeriSign - The Value of Trust
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There are usually 40, 65, or 80 arrays (characters) per line of text, depending on the device. Less expensive devices display fewer characters per line, and require the user to read the standard 80 characters of a normal text line in several readings. A Braille display operates on either electromagnetic or piezoelectric principles. When currents or voltages are applied to points in each six-pin array, various combinations of elevated and retracted pins produce the effect of raised dots or dot-absences in paper Braille. In the electromagnetic Braille display, each pin is surrounded by a cylindrical casing that contains a coil. The pin is attached to a spring, and also to an iron rod passing through the casing. This forms a miniature solenoid. When a current passes through the coil, the pin is pulled inward. Thus when there is no current, the pin is elevated, corresponding to a raised dot in Braille; when there is current in the coil, the pin retracts, corresponding to the absence of a dot. In the piezoelectric display, each pin is mounted above a piezoelectric crystal with metal attached to one side. If a sufficient voltage is applied to the crystal, it becomes slightly shorter. This causes the metal to bow upwards, raising the pin. Thus when there is no voltage, the pin is retracted, corresponding to the absence of a dot in Braille; when there is voltage across the crystal, the pin is elevated, corresponding to a dot. When used in conjunction with a Braille keyboard, the Braille display makes it possible for a person to operate a computer - read the display, send and receive e-mail, and browse the Web. Other approaches instead of or in addition to the Braille display include voice recognition and speech synthesis technologies. RELATED TERMS: voice recognition http://searchsolaris.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid12_gci213318,00.html ______________________ SELECTED LINKS: James Gallagher, a deaf and blind person in the UK, describes and shows several examples of Braille displays. http://www.deafblind.com/display.html The University of Toronto provides some guidance for selecting a Braille display. http://www.utoronto.ca/atrc/reference/tech/refbraille.html Small Times has an article about research aimed at making Braille displays much less expensive. http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?section_id=46,41&document_id=3432 ______________________ QUIZ #26 | Storage Smarts A petabyte, terabyte, exabyte, or megabyte? Which amount of data is the equivalent of more than 300 feature-length movies, 40,000 faxes, 15,000 CDs converted to MP3 at high fidelity, or enough words that it would take every adult in America speaking at the same time for five minutes to say them all? 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