Toy Teaches Kids Braille in Fun, Simple, and Affordable Way

BecDot is a toy that also doubles as a learning tool. Not only is it fun to play with but it also teaches braille. Braille is an essential skill for children with visual impairments to have so that they can keep up with their peers—both socially and academically.

BecDot came about because a father was not satisfied with the braille tools that were currently available for his daughter, so he decided to get to work and design his own!

One of the things holding back devices like this is the complexity and cost of braille displays. If you think what’s behind an LCD is complicated, imagine if every pixel needed to actually move up and down independently and withstand frequent handling. The braille equivalents of e-readers can cost thousands to display a sentence or two at a time — but of course kids don’t need that.

Unsatisfied with the available options, Jake decided to engineer his own. He created a simple Scotch yoke mechanism that can control up to three dots at a time, meaning two of them can create a braille letter. It’s all controlled by an Arduino Uno. Simple means cheap, and the other parts are far from expensive; he told me that his bill of materials right now is around $50, and he could probably get it below $30.

Read more about how the BecDot was made in TechCrunch:  http://dky.bz/2G6r8aS

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Jenn Toso 是一个社交媒体营销专家,擅长一切社交活动!作为 DigiKey 社交媒体团队的忠实成员,您可以在 DigiKey 的社交媒体渠道上看到她的博客、分享、推特和帖子。Jenn 酷爱创客和 STEM 社区,她相信今天的年轻人手中握着一把为我们每个人创造更美好明天的钥匙。Jenn 拥有科学学士学位、互联网营销硕士学位和曲棍球妈妈博士学位。业余时间,Jenn 喜欢探索她最近发现的可穿戴技术的亲和力,也喜欢让自己痴迷于所有与曲棍球相关的东西。您会常常发现 Jenn 活跃在一些社交媒体或曲棍球球场上——或有时候同时乐在其中。

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