Braille Reader
Swati worked with Ducere Technologies in 2014 to create this reading device for the blind. Many books, bills and official documents still being available only in print prevents the blind from accessing information that they ought to be able to. This product converts images of printed text to Braille and audio outputs.
Unfortunately, the project didn't go very far beyond initial design and development. The best part of this project was working with schools for the blind and very special children who inspired her to think about education, especially for special needs.
This pen-shaped product can guide the user to take a picture of any printed text and process the text in the image to audio and Braille. The pen has just one Braille cell, unlike traditional refreshable Braille cell displays. This significantly reduces the cost of this product.
The user research, design of the pen form, prototyping with electronic components, user testing and developing a few principles for interaction design for the blind was done primarily by Swati Shelar and Tejas Rode, an engineer from BITS, Goa.
