Tactile (Device)

Tactile is a real-time text-to-braille device that uses a built-in camera to capture printed text and convert it into braille on a dynamic, refreshable display. It was conceived by six MIT undergraduate students, Chandani Doshi, Grace Li, Jialin Shi, Bonnie Wang, Charlene Xia and Tania Yu, during a 15-hour hackathon, with development continuing afterward. Existing refreshable braille displays cost between 1,500 and 2,500 dollars, while Tactile's developers aimed for a retail price of roughly 100 dollars, a difference that could make text-to-braille access dramatically more affordable for visually impaired users.