Addis Ababa University

Addis Ababa Institute of Technology

School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Braille reading and writing device for visual impaired

person

Electronics

Chala tesfaye ATR/5601/05

Getamesay Bayou ATR/7856/05

Computer

Daniel Gebreyohannes ATR/3676/05

Advisors:

Nebyu Yonas Sutri

Date of submission: November 3 2016

Abstract
Visually impaired people face difficulties in interacting and gaining full advantage of
computers and technologies. Recently, and with the fast evolution in technology, researchers
proposed to give the blinds the ability to take advantage of these advancements. Accordingly, this
paper introduces a new communication channel for visually impaired people. This project
introduces simple design for a braille, comprising a design aims to produce a device
that perform vibrations in six position of visual impaired person hand.it include a twoway communication system that convert a braille system to digitalized form and the reverse that
converts a text in to a braille system using a motor vibrator which is in the form of a braille
system. Which the blind person can recognise.it also used a sound system that converts the
characters in to sound system.

Table of Contents

Abstract ....1
Introduction and Background..4
Problem Statement..7
Motivation6
Objective...8
Methodology....9
Deliverable...12
Resource Requirement and Cost Breakdown.13
Tentative Project Plan....14
References...15

List of figures
figure 1 structure of braille cell

figure 2 The braille alphabet.

figure 3 Standard Braille symbols for numbers.

and special symbols
figure 4 block diagram for braille reader and writer.

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9

List of Table
Table 1 project cost breakdown 14
Table 2 tentative time plan 13

Introduction and Background

The idea behind the Universal Braille System started in 1821 by Louis Braille, since
then, the Braille system has become the most adopted system for written
communication for visually impaired individuals. The Braille system is a method which
translates letters to a combination of dots in order to help individuals with sight defect
and both blind deaf. Using Braille, blind individuals can read a character by touch. The
individual can read a Braille character by rolling a finger over its six-dot or its eight-dot
representation. The combinations of these dots are specifically formed by raising the
pins to represent a certain letter or symbol. A Braille reader can learn how to read
Braille characters by first learning the position of the dots on the cell, and then by
memorizing the representations of all the letters, numbers and characters.
A full Braille cell includes six raised dots arranged in two lateral rows each
having three dots. The dot positions are identified by numbers from one through six. 64
solutions are possible from using one or more dots. A single cell can be used to
represent an alphabet letter, number, punctuation mark, or even an entire word

Fig. 1 Structure of basic Braille cell

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Fig 2. The braille alphabet

Fig. 3 Standard Braille symbols for numbers and special symbols

Problem Statement
Due to the lack of vision, the blind people cannot easily access the latest information
and technologies. Modern technological enhancements cannot be easily affordable to
the visually impaired people because of their higher cost and the less portability. That is
why it has become pretty necessary to develop a low cost, portable and a fast Braille
System for the visually impaired people.
This project introduces new design for a braille, comprising a design aims to
produce a product to perform vibrations in six position of blind person right hand. A
low cost and robust design will provide the blind with an affordable and reliable tool
also it produces the simple technique for reading and writing braille for visual impaired
person.

Motivation
our motivation is that we real have the passion to help the visual impaired people to
be advantages on the technologies since they use braille system as a main source of
formal communication. so we have decided to make the braille system digitalized and
to make much more easy for the visual impaired person to read and write. And also to
make our project low cost which is affordable and easy to use and handle.

Objective
In this project The general problem we are going to solve is that due to the lack of
sight, the blind people cannot easily access the latest information and the technologies.
Modern technological enhancements cannot be easily affordable to the visually
impaired people because of their higher cost and the less portability. That is why it has
become pretty necessary to develop a low cost and portable writing and reading Braille
System for the visually impaired people.

This project introduces new design for a braille writing and reading, the design aims
to produce a product that reads text from computer and change it to braille equivalent
and perform vibrations in six position of blind person right hand. the vibration
proceeds with some interval of time until the end of the text. it also has a writing
technique using pad or push buttons so the blind person can write by switching the
buttons using a braille system and the device can interpret the braille writing in to a text
form that the receiver can understand. In order to avoid spelling error the device
produce a sound to announce the typed letter. A low cost and robust design will
provide the visual impaired people with an affordable and reliable tool.

Methodology
The project generally has software and hardware parts so it is divided into two
phases. Phase one involves the programing and simulation of the project. phase two is
the construction of hardware and delivering a working prototype.
Phase one it is mainly the programing part. The programing is done in C using
Arduino integrated development environment(IDE). this is subdivided into
Stage 1. programing the conversion of input text to brailleThis involves accepting the data(text) from the serial device and process it by
microcontroller and produce a different combination of values on the relay. The relay
intern drives the vibrating motor to produce braille combination for English alphabet,
numbers and special characters and create vibration on the finger of the visual impaired
person.
Stage 2. programming the conversion of braille input to text this involves accepting the
different combination of input from the braille pad (6 push buttons) and process it by
microcontroller and translates it into text. In order to avoid typing error speaker spell
out the typed alphabetic letter.
Stage 3.the construction of the circuits and simulate the devices using simulating
software.
second phase involves the hardware construction for the device.

Power
supply

comput
er

Description of the components

Power supply
it provides voltage for the board and component. Arduino Uno can be
powered from USB or external power plug. This power is the standard 5V from
USB or 12V from the external source.
Microcontroller
Control the overall logic in the device. this include reading text from the serial module
and converts it to the Braille format using. It sends the corresponding control signals to
the vibrator motor via I/O port this patterns are recognized by the impaired person. It
also reads the keys from the writing pad and convert it to the alphanumeric form and
transmits the entered message through the serial port. Voice announcement is also
made by the controller. For this project we are intended to use Arduino Uno R3
SPEAKER Loud speaker is used for making the voice announcement

Serial port The serial communication between device and computer is established
using RS-232 cable and MAX232 chip.RS-232 is a standard for serial communication
transmission of data. It formally defines the signals connecting between a DTE (data
terminal equipment) such as a computer terminal, and a DCE (data circuit-terminating
equipment or data communication equipment), such as a modem.
MAX232 is a 16 pin IC which is used to interface the external I/O device to
microcontroller. Here it interfaces the microcontroller and the computer for effective
communication through RS232 cable.
in case of Arduino Uno there is built in chip that can control the serial communication
between microcontroller and the computer through the Universal Serial Bus (USB).so
instead of RS232 cable we use USB cable.
Vibrator motor
it is the main component in this project. It consists of 6 relays (or transistor)
connected to the I/O port of the controller via driver circuit. Relays are on/off
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according to the input from microcontroller. As per the received the motor set to
vibration for specific period of time. Thus the blind person will be able to sense the
braille letter.

Writing pad
The braille translator has a dual purpose of converting braille text into words and
text to braille. The writing is done using the writing pad.it consists of six push buttons i
similar to the braille patterns. The visual impaired person put braille letter for English
alphabet by pushing those buttons.

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Deliverables
At the end of the academic year, we will come with a complete standalone combo
device with a capability of translating text to braille and braille input to text.it also have
voice assistance for spell checking while writing. this device is robust and provide to be
helpful in the future and it will be available in low cost which easy to use by any visual
impaired person.

Resource Requirement and Cost Breakdown

The cost listed for this projects are according to the current price rate and this might be
varying accordingly.
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equipment required

Multimeter
Oscilloscope
Soldiering equipment

These materials will be provided by AAIT LABS

Personal computer
Programing and simulating software

at hand
at hand

Component for the proposed device

No
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

Items
LPC2148
RS232 CABLE
MAX232 Chip
Vibrator motor
Relay
Speaker
Push buttons
Arduino Uno board

Quantity
1
1
1
6
6
1
6
1

price in dollar
24
20
10
29
25
20
10
50
188

Total
Table 1 project cost breakdown

Tentative Project Plan

This project is planned to be complete in 2 semesters (1 year) time. The three
stages will be complete within the first semester and phase two will be complete with in
the second semester of the academic year.

Activity

Time period

Proposal writing
13

Phase one
Stage one
Stage two
Stage three

November 1 to November 29
December 1 to January 1
January 1-jannary 15

Phase two

1 semester (march-June)

Table 2

tentative project plan

References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

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