Haptica Braille watch for the blind

Posted in Watches by Conner Flynn on February 5th, 2011

Blind people need better watches to read the time. They have analog watches that require them to feel the bumps around the watch, but that is time consuming and inaccurate. Digital watches that read the time out loud are accurate, but not when there is noise around you.

Well, David Chavez created a Braille “digital” watch. The watch has a display for 4 different digits, allowing users to feel the bumps on the watch to get the time quickly and accurately. Thing is, David doesn’t have the funds to kick start the watch into production, so he is crowdsourcing the start up funds on Kickstarter.com. If you think the watch deserves the funding it needs, go to the Kickstarter website for more details and to make a donation.

Braille e-book concept

Posted in Concepts by Conner Flynn on April 19th, 2009

Braille e-book conceptTypically, translating any book into braille more than doubles its thickness. But with e-books that doesn’t have to happen. Designer Seon-Keun Park, Byung-Min Woo, Sun-Hye Woo and Jin-Sun Park want more blind people to be able to enjoy books, so they created this Braille e-book concept.

The idea is that this is a braille Kindle. Using EAP technology, it can change the surface pattern via an electromagnetic signal that will simulate braille text. It’s an elegant and simple solution that would enrich the lives of blind readers quite a bit.

Auguste Reymond Braille Hi-Touch watch for the blind

Posted in Watches by Conner Flynn on October 14th, 2008

Auguste Reymond Braille Hi-Touch watch for the blindAuguste Reymond has a brand new Classic quartz watch in the Braille Hi-Touch. You wouldn’t know it at first glance, but it’s designed especially for the blind, allowing the visually impaired to read the time with their fingertips via raised hour-markers and special hands. A hinge at 10 o’clock gives easy access to the dial. And it also happens to look good for those who are seeing it from afar. No word yet on pricing and availability.

X-Watch: Perfect X-Man retirement gift

Posted in Watches by Conner Flynn on July 17th, 2008

X-Watch: Perfect X-Man retirement gift
It’s tradition to gift a watch to employees who have served you well and are retiring. So it’s easy to see Professor X commissioning this watch and presenting it to Wolverine one day. Of course that would make the Professor how old? Well, maybe in an alternate timeline anyway.

This is actually called the X-Watch and it’s a concept watch that should have been in the movie. It has numbers all along the length, and when they’re lit up it gives you the time. It also sports Braille so that the blind can use it. Or in case cyclops doesn’t have his visor handy and has to feel for the time.

Braille concept watch for the blind

Posted in Watches by Conner Flynn on May 24th, 2008

Braille watch for the blind
If you’re blind, you don’t have a ton of options…for anything really. Not many companies are making special gear for you. The gear you do have doesn’t get upgraded as much as regular people’s. For instance, how many watches do you see that cater to the blind? I’m sure they are out there, but there can’t be many.

Check out this braille watch conceived by David Chavez. The Haptica Braille watch will give the blind the time, so they don’t have to have someone else tell them what time it is. For the moment, it’s just a concept and the Braille dots are on tiny disks that rotate. Only half of the disk is showing. As the time goes by and the disks rotate, the dot pattern changes. Pretty simple way to design a braille watch.