SBIR Phase II: Microfluidic Technology for Full-Page Digital Braille and Tactile Graphics Display

这一小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是通过在类似平板电脑的设备中提供一整页可刷新的盲文文本和触觉图形，减轻美国150万盲人获取信息的负担。这项辅助技术将提供更多的数字形式的盲文，使盲人学生能够用手指阅读数字化的空间内容，包括数学方程，图表和数字，与对科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）领域感兴趣的视力同行建立平等关系。特别是，该产品与支持软件将消除在课堂学习环境中的协作和在工作场所准备文件的障碍。该产品将提高盲文识字率，增加进入STEM职业的机会，并最终导致美国盲人的就业成功和独立性。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目继续努力采用微流体技术，以创建一个高度可制造的全页盲文和触觉图形显示器，使用气动信号驱动盲文间距的引脚。预期的技术创新将某些驱动功能从机电硬件转移到更具成本效益且易于制造的多层微流体基底。由于这一阶段研究的最终目标是创建一个提供交互式盲文和触觉图形的集成系统，该团队将专注于设计盲人用户按需访问文本和非文本信息的交互式体验。这个项目的预期成果是在一个平板电脑大小的设备中的一个无缝的驱动针阵列，能够呈现半页的盲文字符和触觉图形图像。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to reduce the burden of accessing information for the 1.5 million blind people in the United States by making a full page of refreshable braille text and tactile graphics available in a device resembling a tablet computer. This assistive technology will provide increased access to braille in digital form and enable blind students to read, with their fingers, digitized spatial content including mathematical equations, graphs, and figures, creating parity with their sighted counterparts interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. In particular, the product with supporting software will remove barriers to collaboration in classroom learning environments and document preparation in the workplace. The proposed product will improve braille literacy, increase opportunities to enter careers in STEM, and ultimately lead to the employment success and independence of blind Americans.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project continues efforts to adopt microfluidic technology in order to create a highly manufacturable full-page braille and tactile graphics display that uses pneumatic signals to actuate pins at braille spacing. The anticipated technical innovations shift certain drive functions from electromechanical hardware to the more cost effective and easily manufactured multilayered microfluidic substrate. Since the ultimate objective for this phase of research is to create an integrated system for delivering interactive braille and tactile graphics, the team will focus on designing the interactive experience by which blind users access, on demand, the textual and non-textual information that they desire. The anticipated outcome of this project is a seamless array of actuated pins in a tablet­ sized device capable of presenting a half­ page of braille characters and tactile graphic images.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.