Attention Makers

CATEGORY: ACCESSIBILITY

Efficient and affordable Braille printer

MAKERS: Anupam Misra

There are a vast number of visually impaired people in today's world. Their integration into the society is hindered by prevalent braille illiteracy. We have made an affordable and efficient braille printer. Currently braille printers are very costly and hence not accessible to the common man. We have made our printer within 65 USD. There is no running cost. Each braille character comprises a combination of six embossed dots. The printer has master and slave Arduino boards. The print head module is the master module which comprises 3 micro servo motors for printing each character. The slave board controls the print head movement and paper feed mechanism through two servo motors. The master and slave boards communicate serially. Our printer can be used as a braille typewriter and as a standard printer. We have written a program to handle the printing from a text file. As opposed to a normal printer, our printer can be powered from wall-wart or a 9V battery to operate as a standalone unit. Only the master module needs to receive the text file from the computer. This printer is a low-cost alternative to conventional Braille printers, and is truly a product meant for the common man.

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