Optacon

Optacon's tactile matrix

The Optacon (short for OPtical to TActile CONverter ) is a device that enables visually impaired people to read text that is not in Braille .

For this purpose, it consists of a camera, which is guided directly over a text, and an output unit on which the user places their fingers. The output unit converts the typeface (or existing images) into vibrations. Similar to a visual screen, the display takes place in the form of individual pixels on a tactile matrix. The pixels vibrate and can therefore be perceived through the skin. The device was produced and further developed from the 1970s to the late 1990s.

Individual evidence

↑ LH Goldish and HE Taylor: "The Optacon: A Valuable Device for Blind Persons" NEW OUTLOOK FOR THE BLIND, published by the American Foundation for the Blind, February 1974, pp 49-56

[1] LH Goldish and HE Taylor: "The Optacon: A Valuable Device for Blind Persons" NEW OUTLOOK FOR THE BLIND, published by the American Foundation for the Blind, February 1974, pp 49-56