Dot Watch the First Braille & Tactile Smartwatch

Dot Watch the First Braille & Tactile Smartwatch


Positive Entertainment and Culture Magazine for Creative People • Photo Vide


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South Korean tech developer, Dot, might be able to turn all that around, however, with world’s first smartwatch for vision-impaired people. The device uses a refreshable Braille display composed of an array of active dots that are...
South Korean tech developer, Dot, might be able to turn all that around, however, with world’s first smartwatch for vision-impaired people. The device uses a refreshable Braille display composed of an array of active dots that are capable of projecting four Braille characters at a time. You can customise the speed with which characters refresh, letting you skim or dawdle through text at a personalised pace.

“Ninety percent of blind people become blind after birth, and there’s nothing for them right now – they lose their access to information so suddenly,” said Eric Ju Yoon Kim, Dot’s co-founder and CEO, in an interview with Colin Moreshead from Tech in Asia. “Dot can be their lifeline, so they can learn Braille and access everyday information through their fingers, which is the goal of Braille literacy.”

Under its unique facade, the Dot is designed to provide the kinds of features and functionality you’d expect in any regular smartwatch. It includes time-keeping, an alarm, a messenger app, navigation capabilities, and Bluetooth 4.0 to wirelessly connect to other technology. Battery life is said to last for up to 10 hours of active refreshing, which should give the Dot as much as five days’ ongoing use before needing recharging (take that, Apple Watch).

In addition to standard smartwatch features, the Dot can also do something that current smartwatches can’t: act as an ebook reader. Due to their extremely small screens, conventional smartwatches make for a lousy substitute for a Kindle, but the Dot’s active Braille display is just as suited to conveying longer-form writing as it is short messages and notifications (it’s also a lot more comfortable to rest your fingers on your wrist than to keep your head inclined towards it).

Best of all, the Dot’s release is imminent and its anticipated low cost makes it a practical, accessible purchase. Unlike the Braille e-readers that are currently on the market for a few/couple? thousand dollars each, the Dot is expected to cost under US$300 when it launches in the US this December, and the device is available for pre-order now.













Eric Juyoon Kim, founder and CEO of Dot, said the watch is just the first step in a bigger picture offering braille devices to the blind, especially those in developing markets, where the vast majority of visually-impaired reside.

Dot has signed a $1 million agreement with Kenya’s government to bring 8,000 units of its upcoming Dot Mini, an educational braille reader, with an aim to be sold below cost for around $200 each.

It also has plans in cooperation with Google for a 2018 launch of the Dot Pad, a tactile Kindle-like ereader that will display shapes and images through tactile buttons, that could help with learning math or even art.



Eventually, the company's smart braille system could find its way onto public infrastructure as well, helping to make this world just a little more inclusive.


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