Raspberry Pi drives next generation Braille system
Bristol Braille has developed its next generation Braille system based around a Raspberry Pi 400 integrated keyboard aiming to boost software development.
The Canute Console is based around the original multi-line Braille reader, but uses the Raspberry Pi 400 and Linux adds a synchronised display, mapping and even software development capabilities, including Python.
The company is taking pre-orders for the Canute Console, which can be used to upgrade the original Canute 360 reader.
“We’ve been working hard on the Console and are pleased to announce that the Console will now be equally useful for non-technical users as the Canute 360 is. Upgrading means you keep all the reader functionality of the 360, but can switch into Smart Mode, which runs in the Linux command line and can do a huge number of things involving diagrams, viewing maps, editing and writing documents, transcription and conversion to and from Braille, and is the world’s first and only tactile videogaming platform,” said ed Rogers, managing director of Bristol Braille in the UK.
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A 13in high contrast monitor synchronises the Braille touch data for sharing with visual readers, and a Qwerty keyboard can be used in Reader Mode. Smart Mode allows software development in in multiline refreshable Braille, reading maps, complex tables and charts as well as spacial data visualisations that were previously inaccessible to Braille readers.
The monitor and the Braille display show exactly the same output from the terminal. The Braille display can be switched between Literary Braille for a familiar environment and Computer Braille, for letter for letter identical layout in Braille as a sighted person will see on the monitor. This allows the Console to be used by Braille readers to develop spacial and even graphical applications for sighted audiences.
“We are incredibly excited about the potential of this machine to level the playing field for blind people across the globe,” he said. “The Canute Console is aimed at professionals and students of computer science and requires either a degree of familiarity with the command line and Linux or a willingness to learn.”
Using the Raspian Debian-based Linux on the Raspberry Pi 400 allows access to servers or desktop computer running Linux, Windows, MacOS or embedded IoT devices. It can be used for cross developing apps for any operating system that can also run on the BRLTTY screen reader and many custom tools developed by BBT to create and visualise data.
One key element for the development is the software that runs on the Raspberry Pi 400.
“Our ethos has always been to let the community lead us and their feedback is invaluable. We are always looking for partner organisations interested in running trials of the Console in their own field, be in engineering, IT, mathematics or something really left field,” he said.
“Here are a number of applications we at BBT, with our community, have either tested, modified or developed to use on the Canute Console. Some of these are ready and come with the Canute Console on purchase, some are experimental and we can load them onto a customers machine on request.”
“All of these make maximum use of all 360 cells; ever cell of each 40 character line as been eked out to create new and exciting applications in Braille. Fundamentally though, the Console is about using nine-line refreshable Braille to crack open the world of spacial app development to blind people.”
This includes software development and games as well as an app to watch football in real time via the Braile display, with highlights, rewind, fast forward, and Braille commentary for every single play.
Flow, a visualiser for creating and presenting flow diagrams works just as well for the Braille user creating them as for their sighted colleagues being shown the graphical version (with exactly the same layout, of course!)
SVG out allows the Console to turn supposedly visual media, such as Scalable Vector Graphics, into a tactile version of the same.
Present allows a multiline display to present the same spacial info to both a blind and sighted audience on the Console using just common Linux tools. In this case, Pandoc and LibreOffice to make presentations that show the same data and layout on a Powerpoint compatible slide show as on the Braille display.
“We’re looking for games studios to partner with us in sponsoring blind developers with Canute Consoles to complete a game-jam and publish their games on Itch. We’d love to meet up with games studios interested in partnering with us,” he said.
bristolbraille.org/about-canute-console-the-next-generation-in-braille/
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