Around the world, there are some 285 million individuals who are visually impaired. They have often struggled to live in a world where everything is driven by sight but their lives are about to get much better. Thanks to a new invention by a South Korean developer, a braille Smart watch exists and it is everything you would expect it to be.
The invention is known as Dot, and it displays information on the watch using 4 dynamic braille cells. The users can select how quickly the characters are updated. It connects to a smartphone via Bluetooth and can receive text messages from any service or application. Users can send simple messages using the buttons on the side. It also supports open API, so anyone can develop apps for it.
There have been other digital devices for the blind in the past, but most of them use sound. This can be problematic, because the user must plug in headphones and detach from the surrounding environment. The only other choice is to have the information potentially made public. Other digital braille reading devices are typically expensive or bulky and a very small percentage of visually impaired individuals own one.
The Dot has been in development for 3 years and thanks to some 140,000 backers, they plan to ship 100,000 watches by 2017. An additional 40,000 will be shipped in 2018. They will also retail in London shops for $320.
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H/T: Bored Panda
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