Topic by magurp244 2019-07-20 03:22:05

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With the Canute Braille Display inching its way closer to a commercial release, I got to digging into how it actually works. This led me around to a 36 minute presentation by Russell Couper from 2016, one of its developers [here] where he talks about the various prototypes and approaches they went though while working out of a local hacker space in Bristol.

Interestingly, the device is mechanical and appears to use a stepper motor per horizontal row to rotate gears, with bars placed vertcally across the rows that slide forward and backward to configure the braille pins. The real meat of the presentation starts around the 8 minute mark.

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Reply by UltraLeetJ 2019-07-21 21:32:01

  • From: Colombia
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3840 dots! this is just amazing stuff this is really interesting, especially because electronic braille production has been a very proprietary based secret stuff, and so what they intend to do here is laudable to me as it will just allow all of us to go forward by open sourcing the information, it was about time.
I really like how he explains the difficulties from every perspective from the disadvantages of using magnets to the higher costs and so on, plus the materials you use and where you might obtain some of them.
They are also taking pre-orders by the way. TO me the price is somewhat steep because the colombian peso is probably one of the more weak currencies in the world as of this shameful moment, but I do believe the price they are offering is quite impressive for the sheer quantity of electronic braille you are getting.
Thanks for sharing, as always.

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Reply by magurp244 2019-07-22 05:40:37 (edited by magurp244 2019-07-22 05:56:05)

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It is a bit on the pricy side, due to exchange rates being a bit more expensive than the likes of the Orbit Reader 20 and Braille Me, though arguably has amuch greater value add. In some ways, its fantastic, especially the open source nature of it, but in others its abit of a stand still because of the price range. But, the Canute isn't operating in a vacuum, and there are a few other displays that have quietly started surfacing, like [this] little open source chessnut I've mentioned before that costs 104.14€ in parts, the only catch being that you'll have to source the parts and assemble it yourself, or with some help, as there is no official manufacturer. Given the way things are going, I thinks its quite possible that the costs of braille may continue to collapse, I've also seen a few open source braille embossers floating around built out of 3D printer parts, such as [brailleRAP-SP].

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Reply by UltraLeetJ 2020-01-15 12:44:57 (edited by UltraLeetJ 2020-01-15 12:45:58)

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so with a recent live Canute 360 Braille Multiline E-reader q and a event from blind bargains done which I totally missed, I went and found its user's manual and was probably expecting a bit more from the device, but for a reader I think it works well. Very curious on why there are some unused ports, they could probably have used that for a battery or something more practical.
Even though say, orbit is a small one, it does have a lot capability for its value. I still enjoy reading with it just as much as the first day i got it.

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Reply by Blind angel 444 2020-01-15 18:04:43

  • From: United states
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So how much is that in U S dollars?

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Reply by queenslight 2020-01-15 19:04:26

  • From: Denver, Colorado
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From
https://atguys.com/canute
, the US price before tax is $2495, (which by the way the state of Delaware has no Tax.)

queenslight's Website

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Reply by Blind angel 444 2020-01-15 19:30:30

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Thank you for the link and for the price, well it looks like I have to move then. Still to pricey for me with or without taxes. I need one under $1000.

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Reply by UltraLeetJ 2020-01-15 23:13:28 (edited by UltraLeetJ 2020-01-15 23:14:02)

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well, for all the refreshable braille you are getting, its actually a very interesting price to consider. Its like buying 18 braille orbit displays for the price of about 5, to put things into context.
I was just a bit disappointed that it would not be battery powered and really puzzled as to why an headphones jack, and absolutely no bbluetooth support or whatnot.

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Reply by swigjr23 2020-01-16 00:59:07

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I can kind of see the point of no Bluetooth because it is more of an e-reader. I would assume a battery will probably come out in the next year or so.

From watching some of their videos, I got the impression that you wouldn't take this thing with you. I think it is more of a device you leave on your desk.

If anyone picks up one of these, I hope they let us know. i really want one of these, but I don't want to spend that kind of money on a new device. I will probably wait a year or two, and let them work out some of the bugs.

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Reply by magurp244 2020-01-16 01:29:41

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Checking out their site [here] it seems they are taking pre-orders. Looks like the display supports all six-dot braille codes, including music, maths, languages, and tactile graphics. On the price front they list a number of retailers [here], so for some pricing comparisons:

Techno-Vision Systems Ltd, UK: £1,895.00
AT Guys, USA: $2,495.00
American Thermoform Corporation, USA: $2,500
Canadian Assistive Technology, Canada: $2,995

This seems on bar with the given exchange rates, 1.30$US and 1.70$CDN  to one Pound Sterling. The canadian price is actually a bit cheaper with a savings of 320$. Double the price on their planned cost of a smart phone though...

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Reply by Thatguy 2020-01-16 02:09:11 (edited by Thatguy 2020-01-16 16:37:14)

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I've actually beta tested this thing and to be totally honest, I'm not sure what all the hype is for. I'm not trying to be negative or anything but to me the product just seems rather impractical. It's pretty loud and refreshes quite slowly, I think when I was testing it total refresh time was between 20 and 30 seconds. Power down and up is pretty slow too. Now I do understand, this is cool because you get nine lines. At once. But the mechanics of the device slow it down quite a bit, and the volume of them isn't easy to deal with, especially in a classroom or office space. 
As for the ports, I believe when I looked at it there were two USB, USB B, (Like you'd plug a printer cable into,) HDMI, SD, and headphone jack. I'm not sure why the USB B port would exist, or the headphone jack, but I was told that it's much more easy to take away ports on future prototypes than it is to add them. My guess is that they plan on adding some kind of functionality at one point or another.

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Reply by magurp244 2020-01-16 02:16:47

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Interesting... Was there any particular pattern to the refresh? Such as dots from left to right, up or down, or what have you? That might shed some more light on the mechanics of operation, as there weren't any actual recordings or mention of the refresh rate available.

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Reply by Thatguy 2020-01-16 16:24:11

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One line would refresh at a time. The top line dots would disappear completely, left to right, and then after a couple seconds refresh, left to right. The next line would proceed to do this, and the next, and the next... Also, when powering up the device, it performes an entire display check, filling in one line at a time with full cells and then resolving into the library view or the last book you were reading.

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