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A comment on Ask HN: Ideas for tech in developing countries?.

Re:Ask HN: Ideas for tech in developing countries? by jareds on Thursday May 01, 2014 @11:45AM (#7680452)
A cheap Bluetooth enabled Braille display would be a good option although would only serve a small segment of the population in developing countries. For more info see

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refreshable_braille_display

All current models I have seen are over $1000, over $2000 for anything of a decent size. Something that could use Bluetooth to connect to old iPhones, low end Android devices, and windows computers running the open source screen reader NVDA could be very useful in countries where government does not subsidize the purchase of expensive assistive technology.

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Re:Ask HN: Ideas for tech in developing countries? by csytan on Thursday May 01, 2014 @11:57AM (#7680542)
It's interesting that you mention that. Yesterday I was visiting the neighboring teaching lab and a student was working on making a cheap braille reader. They were using a series of parallel rods that can slide up and down.

Here's a (poor) rendition of how it works: http://mondrian.io/?p=NlAQ8x

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Re:Ask HN: Ideas for tech in developing countries? by abracar on Thursday May 01, 2014 @12:22PM (#7680741)
India would be a good place to test it: "Of the 37 million people across the globe who are blind, over 15 million are from India."(http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-has-largest-b...)
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Re:Ask HN: Ideas for tech in developing countries? by jareds on Thursday May 01, 2014 @12:13PM (#7680660)
As someone who is totally blind I would be interested in this if it ever got to a somewhat usable prototype stage.
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Re:Ask HN: Ideas for tech in developing countries? by hershel on Thursday May 01, 2014 @11:54AM (#7680519)
This could be a starting point

http://www.raspberrypi.org/mudra-a-braille-dicta-teacher/

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Re:Ask HN: Ideas for tech in developing countries? by jareds on Thursday May 01, 2014 @12:12PM (#7680651)
I saw that but unless I missed something when looking at the github page I didn't see any information on the device they hooked up to the GPIO pins.
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Re:Ask HN: Ideas for tech in developing countries? by CultureD on Saturday May 10, 2014 @03:20PM (#7726572)
Hey. We're currently using a makeshift braille cell made from solenoids.

For more info : [email protected] Cheers!

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Re:Ask HN: Ideas for tech in developing countries? by hershel on Thursday May 01, 2014 @02:38PM (#7681821)
That's their email address from github:

[email protected]

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