I think an important thing for a product like this to take off will be integrating a good / open api.
Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch
81–90 of 101 posts
Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the video on the linked page they show several blind people using the watch, they seem genuinely surprised at the information they read from its face. Do you suspect this to be faked?
Yes, I believe it is faked. I worked in the braille community for years and micro-actuators that actually work are like a holy grail. If they had one that actually worked, they would be plastering their site with descriptions of their new world changing mirco-actuation mechanism. They don't show a real video of it actuating. It just makes no sense. Its like if you invented fusion power and spent the entire time showi…
Here's a video: https://www.facebook.com/dotsmartbraillewatch/videos/1113611...
Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I believe it is faked. I worked in the braille community for years and micro-actuators that actually work are like a holy grail. If they had one that actually worked, they would be plastering their site with descriptions of their new world changing mirco-actuation mechanism. They don't show a real video of it actuating. It just makes no sense. Its like if you invented fusion power and spent the entire time showi…
Here's a video: https://www.facebook.com/dotsmartbraillewatch/videos/1113611...
Aha, wow. That is somewhat convincing.
Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I believe it is faked. I worked in the braille community for years and micro-actuators that actually work are like a holy grail. If they had one that actually worked, they would be plastering their site with descriptions of their new world changing mirco-actuation mechanism. They don't show a real video of it actuating. It just makes no sense. Its like if you invented fusion power and spent the entire time showi…
Here's a video: https://www.facebook.com/dotsmartbraillewatch/videos/1113611...
The video helps, since the watch face shown on the web page has only 2.5 braille characters to each side of the divider line. I was wondering how that could possibly work, but in the video, there are 18 dots, or three full characters, to each side of the line.
Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch
#85Please don't share sites like this. This is a common theme. People advertise "revolutionary products" for blind people, whithout actually explaining what kind of microactuators they use. I am 99% sure this is a fake non-invention that does not exist.
Oof, I'll eat my shirt. This looks like it might actually be legit! https://www.facebook.com/pg/dotsmartbraillewatch/posts/?ref=... There are a number of videos showing it working there...
Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch
#86A smartwatch for vision impaired, advertised a website without a lot of accessibility provisions (not to mention the scrolljacking and "are you sure you want to leave" onexit hooks). What a world we live in.
This is what I was thinking the whole time... The "Preorder" button scrolls you to a spot on the page where there is no easy information about preordering. This website is really poorly designed..
Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch
#87A smartwatch for vision impaired, advertised a website without a lot of accessibility provisions (not to mention the scrolljacking and "are you sure you want to leave" onexit hooks). What a world we live in.
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Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
> They say that it's smaller, lighter, and cheaper because they use a new type of actuator that isn't "on a ceramic substrate". That means nothing. Modern actuators are piezo-electric. I have no idea what "ceramic substrate" they are talking about. The mashable link is just a press kit. I don't know what is in the RNIB podcast, because the audio is not available to me.
> Modern actuators are piezo-electric. I have no idea what "ceramic substrate" The piezo crystals are the ceramic. This new device claims not to use piezo crystals, and that's why it's smaller. There's a possibility it's using electroactive polymers in a closed bubble together with latches. This would be much cheaper than piezo systems, and also smaller. N. Di Spigna, P. Chakraborti, D. Winick, P. Yang, T. Ghosh and…
That said, modern piezo actuators can get really small. And there was some other work on non-ceramic piezo systems.
Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch
#89How are the "pixels" turned on and off, technically? Is it done by a small magnetic coil? Or by electrostatic means? Or otherwise? Does a non-switching pixel require a current?
It works like this: https://hackaday.io/project/12442-molbed-modular-low-cost-br... It is a tiny magnet inside a solenoid. At each end of the solenoid there is a steel part, which the magnets stick to when on or off. To switch state the coil is energized. Hall effect (or other) sensors can tell where the magnet is and what state the pin is in. It doesn't use any power when it's holding state but switching can consume…
Does it really? This kind of mechanism is not reliable for 10k switches even... (Due to vibration damaging the pin.) And solenoids are nowhere near as small.
Re: Dot Watch – A braille and tactile smartwatch
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
The made the mistake of asking this to my gf who is a teacher for visually impaired kids. Braille is reading, and listening to earbuds is not reading. We teach our sighted kids to read even though they could just all have audiobooks, just like we should teach children Braille even though they can still listen. Another good argument she made was it's about multiplexing. What if someone wanted to learn the time while l…
What kind of logic is "people need to do something more difficult because it's easier for people who aren't the same as me"? Also, who's to say that people shouldn't be encouraged to use audiobooks rather then read text-based liturature? When listening to an audio book I can do many other things like study for an exam or program. I can't read a book via text and write software at the same time. I don't think we shoul…
> Most people don't wear watches and it's usualy considered rude to pull out your phone mid-convorsation. I always wear a watch and so people just say "do you have the time"?
> If you can't ask Siri you can just ask whoever you're talking to. Also, if you express you want to know the time and they say "I don't know" you can then just ask Siri and tell them. It works out nicely.
The point is that people _can_ look at their watch or smartphone while still listening in on the conversation. It's hard to hear and pay attention to two different things at the same time.