New Printer Benefits Visually-Impaired People

KWSP has begun a project designing a printer that prints Braille. The printer will allegedly allow you to digitally print tactile mater from home or office.

According to DigitalArts, the printer is called b.my.jet and will produce Braille prints at a significantly cheaper price than the current embossing technique. There are 285 million visually impaired individuals in the world–the printer will undoubtedly be beneficial to a lot of people.

KWSP have also stated that the blueprint includes scanning and “copy to Braille” options too, making it significantly easier for the current method.

In addition to this, the innovative company declared that the current embossing method is “analogue, inflexible and not on-demand to users.” But the b.my.jet is an opportunity to change that, as it aims to have similar operating costs to modern laser printers.

KWSP will be designing and generating the ground-breaking printer at their UK premises, in Brackley.

KWSP’s managing director, Kieron Salter, has indicated that there is a moral obligation to produce this product, he said “I believe engineers have a social responsibility – this project is a great example of how engineering can use current and future technology to improve quality of life”.

KWSP have been backed by EU research programme Horizon 2020 SME Instrument. Moreover, they have collaborated with Hungarian-based Central European Research Centre and fellow British-based digital printing institution Alchemie Technology.

The sub-contractors for this project are Hungarian charitable foundation INFOALAP and Co&Co.

The first beta model is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Source
http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/news/creative-hardware/this-low-cost-desktop-printer-can-print-braille/