[Welcome] [Home] [General Information] [Portfolio of Selected Work: Aids for the Handicapped] [Academics]

Aids for the Handicapped: Direct, Punched Tape to Braille, Line-at-a-Time Transducer

Client

Department of Health Education and Welfare, Division of Social and Rehabilitation Services. Contracted to the DIvision of Sponsored Research at M.I.T. (1961)

Problem

It was desired to design a transducer system to take information from perforated teletypesetter tape and form it display Braille. WIth such a machine it would be possible to enhance the availability of Braille materials since the tape would store information without Braille "bumps".

Solution

After much investigation it was found that the space between tape perforations was tolerably close to that of Braille "dots" or "bumps", and after testing with blind people, it was decided to design a machine that would directly transfer the tape punched holes into Braille "bumps" by using reading pins that would either fall through the tape holes or rest over the tape where there were no holes. All that was needed was to perforate the tape in negative Braille. The machine below positions the tape below the pins and then raises it. Where the pins contact the tape they are lifted and protrude above the reading surface resembling Braille "bumps". One flick of the lever at the right advances the tape and reparts the sequence. This machine was found too slow for comfortable reading and the continuous transducer was developed as wil be shown in the next page.