Technology has taken a giant step towards solving a decades-long problem affecting blind people and touch screens. This solution promises to bring accessibility to a very needy group.
We always say that the best thing about technology is its power to make our lives easier. And not only in recreational matters, but it can be differential for those who need it most.
In this sense, a group of researchers from the United States and Israel has managed to build a touch screen that is capable of being read and used by blind people or with serious vision problems, a gap that had been trying to close for years.
One of the reasons why this type of solution had not been developed is the price, since they are difficult and expensive to manufacture.
Physical pushbuttons capable of creating a touch-detectable pattern take up a large volume and are difficult to mount close together, so they take up too much space and become impractical when push comes to shove.
For this reason, the international team of researchers looked for alternatives to physical hardware. AND the idea they came up with is really innovative: popping a miniature fireball inside a piece of flexible polymer that can be inflated like a balloon.
The base of the hardware is a small deformable polymer with tiny raised areas capable of repeatedly inflating like balloons and then deflating.
Below, the researchers have created a system of canals that feed a mixture of methane and oxygen each of these polymer bubbles. And, at the base of the bubble, there would be two wires carrying enough current to allow a spark between them.
The spark ignites the gas mixture and causes a sudden increase in pressure (Investigators have not determined whether an actual detonation occurs). The combustion is powerful enough to make an audible noise from the outside.
The pressure generated expands the bubble, creating a change in the surface that can be felt by touch. And, as the polymer expands, it lowers the pressure experienced by the newly burned gases, causing its temperature to drop. In essence, the device itself serves as a cooling system for combustion, preventing heat from building up.
The device is now in the testing phase and He still has a long way to go, but it is the first step so that blind people and, in general, the whole group with vision problems, can have a solution nearby that allows them to have digital screens that can be read in braille.