Auto Braille: A Self Operatable Braille Printer For Taking Notes

This paper presents a simple Braille character printer for the blind, named "Auto Braille". Braille printers are generally designed and utilized either for printing in bulk or for short messages, but these printers are not suitable for taking notes and they can’t be operated by themselves. To overcome this issue, a Braille printer with a special mechanism, is developed which uses various actuators to get Braille printing done on a paper. The existing Braille printers are designed with the help of XY movement support structure with various modular punching mechanisms; the operating states are controlled with a micro controller with the help of PC based user commands. But, Auto Braille is designed for note printing purpose with the help of micro controller to attain Autonomous print control based on user (Visually Challenged) commands. This novel way of printing is not only based on operating states but also includes a simplified modular structure of XY movement support.The proposed design of Braille printer i.e., Auto Braille is validated with the support of user satisfaction and it ensures small size and wide range of operating styles having high accuracy for printing in different languages with the help of a novel design which employs a generalized keypad enabling the user to give inputs. The approach of this design maximizes the comfort, performance and reduces the manufacturing cost for the user.