Tampa, Florida
June 15, 2019
June 15, 2019
June 19, 2019
Manufacturing
18
10.18260/1-2--32684
https://peer.asee.org/32684
585
Atif Saeed is a Junior in Mechatronic Engineering at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology. He is also the Vice President of Vaughn College's robotics team along with an active participant in both Society of Women Engineers and Unmanned Aerial Club at Vaughn College. He currently holds a FAA Airframe and Powerplant and also a FCC GROL. His interests include aerospace, aeronautics, and automotive.
Niki Taheri, Senior Mechatronics Engineering student at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology. She is the President of Vaughn College's Society of Women Engineers chapter and Secretary of the Robotics Team at Vaughn College.
Most children learn to read before they begin school. They learn the ABC song from their parents. Soon they begin to identify the letters from a board book with their favorite characters to help them along. From there, the letters are grouped to form words like CAT or DOG. Then it isn’t long before the words are put together to demonstrate ideas in the form of sentences. This seems like an easy process and has been working for generations; however, it doesn’t work the same for all children. Imagine a child who cannot see and the additional challenges of learning to read. It is frustrating for the child and even more frustrating for the parents who tirelessly try to teach their child to read. There are machines that could help in this process, but they are extremely expensive with a price tag ranging from $1,200.00 to well over $5,000.00. These devices are not affordable for the average family or even many school districts around the country.
The objective of this project is to create a device that can be used to teach blind children and their parents to identify the letters of the alphabet and numbers using braille for a retail price of $150.00. This small rectangular device activates pins to depict a corresponding letter or number in braille for the child to feel and identify through voice command and other preprogrammed modes. To develop this product first, a prototype case was created in CATIA, and 3D printed. Then circuits were created, which included actuators that made up the braille cells were then fitted inside the case. The code was then uploaded to the micro-controller and tested. This product allows children to begin recognizing the braille cells in correlation to the letter or number they have spoken or have heard. Children, parents, and educators of any age can learn the basics of braille with this device.
Saeed, A., & Taheri, N. T. (2019, June), Early Learning Braille Block Language System Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32684
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