LiBrailley

Inspiration

To create a portable reader for the blind

What it does

This project uses a Raspberry Pi to accept text messages sent from an Android Phone and translates the N character strings into a string of N space separated 6 digit braille code that is sent to the Arduino. Each digit of the braille code controls the state of a servo motor which controls a braille dot.

How we built it

The text to braille conversion is done with a look-up table that holds all the combinations from English US to a binary code which represents the state of a motor. The raspberry pi performs all these conversion from text to binary code and than sends this data out to arduinos which control the motors.

Challenges we ran into

A large challenge we ran into this project was getting an arduino to control enough motors. The motors draw too much current to be powered by an arduino so we had to develop battery packs. We also had a hard time creating the braille steps for each motor.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of being able to control the motors to a certain extent even though it doesn't meet all the mechanical criterias.

What we learned

We learned who to control stepper motors with the arduino and how to communicate between the raspberry pi and arduino with bluetooth

What's next for Low Cost Braille Actuator

The next step is to decrease the size of the braille actuator and develop several actuators to line up in series with each other. This way more than a single character is output to a user.