Georgia Tech created quite a media splash when they announced the forth-coming BrailleTouch app for smart phones. BrailleTouch promises an eyes-free text-entry solution for both the blind and sighted user.
In demonstrations on YouTube, the phone is held in landscape orientation with 3 buttons on each edge of the phone. The documentation on the BrailleTouch website says it will work in portrait mode as well. The Georgia Tech researchers claim Braille entry is much faster than using the on-screen keyboard. The mainstream news seems to have picked up on this story as it suggests Braille as a reliable means of entering text without looking at the screen which could be adopted by sighted users as a way of riding themselves of overly-complex and cluttered on-screen keyboards.
On Monday, March 5, Accessible World interviewed Dr. Mario Romero about BrailleTouch and hopefully answered many questions about this potentially very useful free app.
Apparently, users of the Android operating system will be able to add BrailleTouch as one of the available keyboards system-wide, while the iOS version will run as a stand-alone app. This limitation of the current iOS setup will reduce the usefulness of BrailleTouch. For example, replying to an e-mail or text message will require a cut-and-paste operation or creating a new message from within the app itself. This would work similarly to the Dictation app currently available in the Apple App Store. If you compare the behavior of the Dictation app to the dictation feature which works system wide on the iPhone 4S, you will see there will be several steps involved in using BrailleTouch.
In the YouTube video, BrailleTouch appears to be self-voicing. This implies that VoiceOver is not operational. It is possible BrailleTouch is taking advantage of a new programming interface which allows part of the touch screen to operate independently of VoiceOver control. This would eliminate continually activating and deactivating VoiceOver in order to operate BrailleTouch.
There has been some confusion over a statement made in the YouTube video regarding BrailleTouch replacing expensive hardware Braille interfaces. While there are Braille Keyboards which can wirelessly connect to smartphones, these are much less common than refreshable Braille displays. BrailleTouch is only a method of Braille entry, and does not provide a means of reading Braille. This distinction, while clear to users of the technology is not so readily obvious to those outside of the assistive technology community.
What we know about BrailleTouch so far seems like a great first step toward another means of text-entry for those, including myself, who find thumb-typing on an on-screen keyboard slow and cumbersome. In time perhaps BrailleTouch will expand to include entry for more complex symbols. Most importantly, many users would welcome Grade II Braille entry, a short-hand method of typing which increases Braille entry speed dramatically.
BrailleTouch Homepage – http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~mromero/brailletouch/
Accessible World – http://www.accessibleworld.org
YouTube video demonstrating BrailleTouch – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIEO1bUFHsI
