Blind and visually impaired people often face significant barriers when attempting to organize and identify objects in one’s day to day life. Most everyday items, such medications, spices, take-out containers, and clothing, lack braille labels, which raises significant safety, efficiency, and independence concerns amongst patients. Current braille labelling options are highly limited, non-portable, expensive, or require assistance from a sighted-individual.
We aim to create a portable device that can identify English writing on unknown labels and automatically print accurate braille labels for attachment. It should work across a variety of product types, packaging fonts, and surfaces, and our design should focus on affordability, durability, and ease of use in daily tasks for the visually impaired or blind. The final product will aim to integrate optical character recognition with a braille embossing mechanism to provide real time, accurate tactile labels. Optionally, we could consider adding features such as storage of previously created labels, voice command recall, and rechargeable cordless operation.