This project started when I met Alvino. He is originally from the Bahamas and he was born unable to see. Today Alvino has migrated to Canada where access to braille embossers is subsidized by the government, but still they’re expensive, and repairs are costly. I started to think about building a machine for him to read music as he plays the accordion.
The initial idea led me to think about a system of pins and a rotary encoder to build a new kind of embosser. Commercial machines emboss the paper by impacting it all at once. OpenBraille uses a physical encoder and a roller; this way, the embossing is done gradually, requiring less force, so we can easily use 3D-printed parts.
I started by designing and printing the encoder.
As the embossing head moves back and forth across the paper, three pins punch the braille dots. These pins are actuated by a 3D-printed encoder wheel with three separate tracks, in a cam-and-follower arrangement, to form each braille letter correctly.
The three encoder pins, each made from a nail and a hex nut, are the only components that have to be machined; you can use a Dremel and Vise-Grips.
I then used the typical components of a 3D printer and pieces of plywood to build the rest of the machine.
After three weeks of working day and night, I managed to emboss my first card. When I presented it to Alvino, he was able to read the message: “Hola Alvino.”
Because the braille printer is based on existing 3D printers, there was very little programming to do: I had to modify the firmware for the Arduino, and I wrote some Python code to translate the braille letters into G-code.
OpenBraille is a production of LaCasaLab, a homemade laboratory made by me and my roommate Christelle Fournier. Special thanks to Sensorica and Eco2Fest, and to David Pache who programmed the user interface. The project also won grand prize in Instructables’ 2017 Arduino contest.
This isn’t, by any means, a finished product. By making the machine an open source project, I’m hoping others will improve the design. If you’re curious or you want to help out, feel free to follow our tutorial and help us build a community around OpenBraille.
Further resources
[+] 3D printing files:
[+] Project code
I’m a visually impaired user in the united states and I have to say this project is interesting, however I have some concerns.
1. Not all of us are good at 3d printing. As far as I know this technology is not as accessible to the blind.
2. What kind of paper does the printer take? I normally order mine from APH and the paper is tractor fed
3, how durable is the braille I’m used to braille that is very very durable and is hard like a book.
4. How long will it take to let’s say emboss a full page of text
5. Does this thing work on mac os as well as windows? Many softwares for embossing on the mac are expensive, close to a gran, so I’m curious about that as well. Thanks and can’t wait to read further discussion on this topic.
Hi Sarah, Yes you are right, on its actual form this machine isn’t very useful. To make a reliable machine it take years of development. The project its mostly an invitation for other people to work with me and develop an openSource alternative to the actual options.
My late mother was a Braille transcriber, certified by the LOC. That’s a Perkins Brailler Alvino’s using in the first image. Made right here in Watertown, MA by the Perkins School for the Blind.
Braille doesn’t just spell out words using letters. There are shortcuts and special symbols to make common words shorter and to indicate caps and lowercase. Learning all these is part of the certification process and necessary to create professional quality Braille documents. It’s quite complicated.
https://www.memorangapp.com/flashcards/51617/Braille+Short+Form+Words/
http://www.brailleauthority.org/ueb/symbols_list.pdf
Great project!