Drishti - Low Cost Blind E-book Reader And Stick

Demo

Overview

The problem of blindness is quite evident. Apart from the impact on the social life, the major impact is on their employment which affects their ability to carry on their livelihood.

Literacy is an indispensable skill for them. Be it for their education, their work, or their daily lives. Presently the most commonly used product for this is Braille system. Students who can read Braille tend on average to acquire higher literacy rates and fare better professionally later on. Several studies show that braille literacy is directly correlated with academic achievement and employment among the blind and visually impaired. Matter of the fact this is especially true in comparison to those who otherwise rely on voice synthesizers. Braille provides the fundamentals of reading and writing for the blind: letters and words, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structures.

Thus it becomes quite evident that Braille is way more effective than Voice synthesizers. But Braille system with all its applications has some serious limitations. Books which use the braille system are heavy and bulky. Thus, it lacks in terms of portability. Moreover, Braille books are less in number when compared to regular textbooks.

A white cane is used for mobility by most of the blind people. But a normal cane cannot detect knee above or hanging obstacles which cause socially awkward situations like collision with people while walking or unsafe collisions with animals or into trash.

Features

Therefore, the need of the hour is a product which has all the usefulness of Braille but counters all of its drawbacks. So, the ideal features would be:

• Low Cost

• Readily Available

• Portable and Compact

• User Friendly

• Compatible with different platforms

• Ergonomic Design

• Intuitive Operation

Thus, came an idea for an alternative, “DRISHTI”, is an eBook reader and a mobility assistant for the blind which would be very beneficial as it would help them the same way as braille does but in a more elegant fashion.