A cost-effective Braille printer: Aiding the visually impaired

Authors

Palash Thakur, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal, IndiaFollow

Abstract

A pervasively high level of braille illiteracy has hampered heavily the large number of partially or completely visually impaired persons in today’s society, their integration into society as productive, educated, and capable members. This problem is further compounded by the fact that the braille printers are prohibitively expensive – generally starting from two thousand US dollars, beyond the reach of a common person. The purpose of this paper is to introduce a highly cost-effective Braille printer primarily utilizing an Atmel AVR microcontroller (ATMega 32a) and servomotors acting as rotary and linear actuators, coupled with gears. The printer can be controlled by attaching it to a personal computer. A prototype of the device has been constructed and shown. The prototype in question has been built at a cost of 30 to 80 times cheaper than the current market standard for personal braille printers.

Recommended Citation

Thakur, Palash (2016) "A cost-effective Braille printer: Aiding the visually impaired," Manipal Journal of Science and Technology: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 5.
Available at: https://impressions.manipal.edu/mjst/vol1/iss2/5