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'Haptics' display sought to bring graphics to the blind

R. Colin Johnson

Nov 15 |17:54

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The EE who co-invented the electret microphone was recently recruited to help create the world's first graphical "haptic" display for the blind. James West, an electrical engineer, was awarded America's highest technical honor--the National Medal of Technology--for his work on the electret's charged polymer film that converts motion into an electrical signal.

For the National Science Foundation-funded haptic display project, West wants to turn this concept around by sending signals to an electro-active polymer that responds with motion on its surface. The researchers hope their efforts will result in a display of graphical patterns for the blind to feel with their hands.

The project was dubbed, "A Dynamic Tactile Interface for Visually Impaired and Blind People," by team leader, Ilona Kretzschmar, an engineering professor at The City College of New York, who says she wants to "develop a viable dynamic tactile interface that allows graphic and pictorial information to be presented in real time in tactile rather than visual space."

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