A new smart watch, the Dot, catering to the blind, is being built that will allow the visually impaired to read their digital data in braille. While in the non-digital world, books and other reading material are available in braille this has not always translated over into the digital world, though we find the world is increasingly headed in a digital direction. The Dot is a watch that connects to a phone via Bluetooth and can display messages for the blind using four dynamic braille cells. It can read virtually any message from a phone include texts, emails, map directions, etc.
The Dot’s technology, while not new, has not been applied to the world of gadgets, smartphones and smart watches before. It employs a series of pins and magnets that can move around on the watch face to create different braille characters, four at a time, at speeds that can be adjusted for comfort.
In this way one can read their text messages, e-mails and data from various other apps through Bluetooth just as they would any other material in braille.
I may not be the target consumer for this product but that doesn’t stop me from being excited for its release.
