Braille label maker

A device that started out as a university project could make the lives of millions of visually impaired people easier.

One everyday problem for people who are blind or have very limited sight is distinguishing things that are completely identical to the sense of touch, such as different CDs and DVDs, or canned goods that are all the same size and shape. To cope with that difficulty, many people make Braille labels to attach to these items.

But the existing devices for doing this are either expensive and heavy - one device costs about $650 (£400) and has limited portability - or light and inexpensive but very difficult for a blind person to operate, and limited in the number of characters they can imprint.

A team of MIT students searching for a better solution have now developed a new prototype device that is small and easily portable, can produce the entire panoply of possible Braille characters (including commonly used two-character contractions), and can be relatively easily loaded and operated by touch.