A new vibrating Glove

The device can teach you to read and write in Braille - even while you're doing other things.

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US have developed a computer glove that can teach people to read and write Braille, a tactile writing system used by the visually impaired. The glove is designed based on the principles of passive haptic learning (PHL), which means that users can learn Braille letters even if they are distracted.

Computer scientists Thad Starner, professor at Georgia Tech and one of the authors of the study, explains over at Futurity: “We’ve learned that people can acquire motor skills through vibrations without devoting active attention to their hands.”

Starner and PhD student Caitlyn Seim designed a two-part study to test the gloves. First, each participant wore a glove with small vibrating motors attached to the knuckles. These motors vibrated in sequences that correspond to the typing pattern of particular phrases in Braille. The participants also received audio cues telling them which Braille letters were produced in the sequence. Participants then typed the phrase on a keyboard without any tactile or audio cues.

The second part consisted in repeating the sequence for 30 minutes, while the participants were distracted playing a game. They were told to ignore the gloves. Half of the participants were exposed to the vibrations and heard the audio cues, while the other 50% only heard the audio cues. After the game was over, they were asked to type the phrase.

The results were quite impressive. “Those in the control group did about the same on their second attempt (as they did in their pre-study baseline test),” Starner explains in a press release. “But participants who felt the vibrations during the game were a third more accurate. Some were even perfect.”

The participants, none of which had previous experience with Braille, also transferred the knowledge learned from typing Braille into reading. After the test, they could recognise 70% of the letters in the phrase.

A second study will test a method that teaches Braille through PHL in four sessions.

Only about 10% of blind people learn Braille, largely because the skill is generally neglected in the school system. Technologies based on PHL could soon be a faster and more inclusive teaching method.