At present, the commonly used braille in mainland China is essentially a “syllabic braille” (or pinyin braille), which shows many deficiencies in promoting braille informatization and literacy for ...people with visual impairments. The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for Hanzi Braille to solve the above problems. Based on Mainland Chinese Braille (also called Current Chinese Braille), Hanzi Braille is customized by using the existing braille and adding signs in front of it. These signs, which are associated with radicals of Chinese characters, help distinguishing homophones and expressing the meaning of a Chinese character. Derived from the existing braille, Hanzi Braille breaks through the limitations of traditional braille. To some extent, it can help people with visual impairments integrate into the society of sighted people better and improve the efficiency of conversion between Chinese character and braille in the computer.
•The neural basis of letter-speech sound (LS) integration is similar in the blind and sighted.•In both groups the integration takes place in the superior temporal cortex.•The direction of the ...congruency effect is different between the groups.•LS discrimination efficiency and congruency effect correlated with age and reading skills only in the sighted.
Learning letter and speech sound (LS) associations is a major step in reading acquisition common for all alphabetic scripts, including Braille used by blind readers. The left superior temporal cortex (STC) plays an important role in audiovisual LS integration in sighted people, but it is still unknown what neural mechanisms are responsible for audiotactile LS integration in blind individuals. Here, we investigated the similarities and differences between LS integration in blind Braille (N = 42, age range: 9–60 y.o.) and sighted print (N = 47, age range: 9–60 y.o.) readers who acquired reading using different sensory modalities. In both groups, the STC responded to both isolated letters and isolated speech sounds, showed enhanced activation when they were presented together, and distinguished between congruent and incongruent letter and speech sound pairs. However, the direction of the congruency effect was different between the groups. Sighted subjects showed higher activity for incongruent LS pairs in the bilateral STC, similarly to previously studied typical readers of transparent orthographies. In the blind, congruent pairs resulted in an increased response in the right STC. These differences may be related to more sequential processing of Braille as compared to print reading. At the same time, behavioral efficiency in LS discrimination decisions and the congruency effect were found to be related to age and reading skill only in sighted participants, suggesting potential differences in the developmental trajectories of LS integration between blind and sighted readers.
This paper reviewed prominent research findings on Japanese braille reading published in the Japanese Journal of Special Education, thus revealing three main categories: braille reading speed, finger ...and hand movement, and legibility/readability. Although much of this evidence has been used to promote braille reading speed through appropriate techniques, the majority of studies have focused on more advanced readers who are blind without additional disabilities. This highlights a relatively unexplored avenue for future research. Thus, one new research question remains: do hand and finger movements foster verbal braille processing in persons with blindness and other disabilities? A few practical studies on braille learning among individuals with multiple disabilities also emphasize the role of hand and finger movements in verbal processing like experience braille readers do. The need for clarification of this issue was discussed.
Für gehörlose Lernende stellt das Schreiben eine doppelte Herausforderung dar: Gebärdensprachen verfügen über keine Gebrauchsschrift, weshalb gehörlose Schreiber/-innen die Schrift der umgebenden ...Lautsprache verwenden. Diese unterscheidet sich jedoch in struktureller Hinsicht grundlegend von der Gebärdensprache, was dazu führt, dass der Schriftspracherwerb in vielen Bereichen dem Erwerb einer Zweitsprache gleicht. Schriftliche Textproduktionen gehörloser Signer (=Gebärdenspachbenutzer/-innen) sind deshalb aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven von Bedeutung: Aus Sicht der Mehrsprachigkeitsforschung bieten sie einen Einblick in Prozesse des bimodal bilingualen Spracherwerbs, bei dem eine Laut- und eine Gebärdensprache involviert sind. Aus sprachdidaktischer Perspektive stellt sich in der Folge die Frage zur erfolgreichen Vermittlung schriftsprachlicher Kompetenzen für gehörlose Schüler/-innen. Die Untersuchung ermöglicht durch den direkten Vergleich von gebärden- und lautsprachlichen Daten Einblicke in cross-modale Transferprozesse und diskutiert deren didaktisches Potential für den Unterricht gehörloser Schüler/innen. ; Für gehörlose Lernende stellt das Schreiben eine doppelte Herausforderung dar: Gebärdensprachen verfügen über keine Gebrauchsschrift, weshalb gehörlose Schreiber/-innen die Schrift der umgebenden Lautsprache verwenden. Diese unterscheidet sich jedoch in struktureller Hinsicht grundlegend von der Gebärdensprache, was dazu führt, dass der Schriftspracherwerb in vielen Bereichen dem Erwerb einer Zweitsprache gleicht. Schriftliche Textproduktionen gehörloser Signer (=Gebärdenspachbenutzer/-innen) sind deshalb aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven von Bedeutung: Aus Sicht der Mehrsprachigkeitsforschung bieten sie einen Einblick in Prozesse des bimodal bilingualen Spracherwerbs, bei dem eine Laut- und eine Gebärdensprache involviert sind. Aus sprachdidaktischer Perspektive stellt sich in der Folge die Frage zur erfolgreichen Vermittlung schriftsprachlicher Kompetenzen für gehörlose Schüler/-innen. Die Untersuchung ermöglicht durch den direkten Vergleich von gebärden- und lautsprachlichen Daten Einblicke in cross-modale Transferprozesse und diskutiert deren didaktisches Potential für den Unterricht gehörloser Schüler/innen.
Braille for Physics Ediyanto Ediyanto; Thalsa Syahda Aqilah
Journal of ICSAR (Online),
07/2022, Letnik:
6, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
The demand for learning media for those who have visual impairments in learning physics is growing. Braille letters that cannot accommodate physics equations and symbols are an impediment that must ...be addressed promptly. The technique that can be used is, of course, to present a new version of current Braille. The Braille form for Physics in this article is still a work in progress. We are eager to collaborate with professionals in physics and Braille. In addition, as a follow-up, we will consider validating and constructing a Braille physics dictionary utilizing 3x3 Braille forms.
Stretching Dielectric Elastomer Performance Carpi, Federico; Bauer, Siegfried; De Rossi, Danilo
Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science),
12/2010, Letnik:
330, Številka:
6012
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Devices using materials that deform in response to electricity are based on a phenomenon that was observed more than two centuries ago.
The idea that a solid material can deform when stimulated by ...electricity originated in the late-18th century with observations of ruptures in overcharged Leyden jars, the first electrical capacitors. In 1776, Italian scientist Alessandro Volta mentioned in a letter that Italian experimenter Felice Fontana had noted volume changes in the Leyden jar upon electrification (
1
), an observation that launched a new field of investigation—“deformable” materials affected by electricity. More than two centuries later, the concept of “electrically stretchable materials” is at the forefront of devising bioinspired robots, tactile and haptic interfaces, and adaptive optical systems (
2
,
3
).
This article presents a novel portable one-hand Braille input system (BIS) to assist visually impaired users in entering text on electronic devices. The proposed BIS is designed based on a flexible ...Braille keyboard (FBK), it mainly consists of five dual-interlocked tactile sensors, a processing circuit, and a software modulus. The fully elastomeric graphene/carbon nanotube/ silicone rubber nanocomposites are synthesized and used as tactile sensing material and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the structural and encapsulation for the fabrication of sensors. Characterization tests showed the tactile sensor has relatively high force sensing sensitivity of 0.649 N<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">^{-\text{1}}</tex-math> </inline-formula> at sensing range of 0-5 N and a frequency sensing ability of 0.5-2.0 Hz, which can meet human finger pressing requirements. A specific Braille input method is proposed, and personalized parameters are set for users to fit different pressing habits. The average input speed of 3.37 words per minute (WPM) with an average accuracy of 92.2% for Braille characters input is demonstrated by evaluating text entry performance. The results indicated that our developed tactile sensor enabled portable one-hand BIS can assist visual impaired users with enhanced text entry on electronic devices effectively and privately.
Abstract Louis Braille (1809–1852) was born in France. At the age of three, he wounded his right eye with a cobbler's tool while playing in his father's workshop. No medical knowledge could save his ...eyesight at that time. Louis's left eye became inflamed, apparently due to subsequent sympathetic ophthalmia, and he eventually lost the sight in that eye. At the age of five, Louis Braille was completely blind. He is considered to be the inventor of a writing system by touch that bears his name, the Braille system. This revolutionary system has allowed blind people to access written culture, and it can therefore be considered a major advance in the quality of life for the blind. The immediate precursor of the invention of the Braille system was the alphabet created by Charles Barbier de la Serre (1767–1841) who created a language by touch designed for military and secret use. Louis Braille modified this alphabet into the Braille alphabet, which is practically the same one that is currently used. It required time to be recognized and to be implemented as a reading and writing method for blind people throughout the world. In 1950, UNESCO effectively universalized the Braille alphabet, and in 2005 it recognized Braille system as a “vital language of communication, as legitimate as all other languages in the world.”
