Thermal tablet for the blind

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims present a thermal touch screen for the blind – a thermal tablet. A blind person using the device can imagine simple graphics or characters by touching flat thermal screen, which consists of reversible heat points, either warm or cold in different time. For the purpose, a thermal touch screen has been designed, fabricated and tested with a help of the blind.

Design/methodology/approach

The screen contains 294 Peltier modules working as reversible small heat sources that keep pre-set different temperature. The tablet can easily present thermal images and characters generated directly by an interfaced PC. Design methodology is based on own authors’ patent.

Findings

This paper presents original design and construction stages, as well as tests and usefulness of the device. The tests were carried out with participation of blind students who suggested how to tune the final parameters of the device in such a way that presentation and recognition of thermal information is easy and quick.

Originality/value

The thermal tablet consists of original hardware and software. Both of them collaborate each other and make the tablet useful for the blind. It has been proved by series of tests.

Citation

Kos, A., Boron, K. and Brzozowski, I. (2016), "Thermal tablet for the blind", Microelectronics International, Vol. 33 No. 1, pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1108/MI-02-2015-0016