Undergraduates Devise Inexpensive Hand-Held Braille Writer

Johns Hopkins University Press Release, 25 Jul 2006 To help provide a low-cost communication tool for blind people, undergraduates at The Johns Hopkins University have invented a lightweight, portable Braille writing device that requires no electronic components. For a class called Engineering Design Project, four mechanical engineering majors were asked to produce such an instrument that would cost less than $50 each. The more sophisticated and generally more cumbersome typewriter-style or computer-based Braille writers available to blind people typically cost much more. At the end of a two-semester research, design and testing process, the student inventors came in well below the target price. Read more