Tactograph

Tactile graphics printer

             Visually impaired people face many challenges and difficulties in their daily life. One of the best ways to help in their life is by educating them. For their knowledge source, they are mainly depending on feeling things. As a solution Braille system was introduced however children joining primary school feel this difficult in learning. The combination of tactile graphical shapes, they can study with better understanding. Tactile based materials are the best way of knowledge for visually impaired. Tactile printing techniques like thermal embossing, UV curing adhesive are developed as a solution. The main disadvantage of this type of printing is that they require special type of papers for printing which makes this type of printing higher cost per paper and none of this techniques use previously printed Braille books for reprinting graphical shapes. We have designed a special Tactograph printer with low cost and easily refillable fluid cartridge system. With this printer, shapes have been created on any A4 sheet which will give interactive reading experience for visually impaired.

We designed Tactograph a tactile printer based on fluid in a replaceable cartridge. This can print any tactile shapes on a normal paper. We have implemented this technique with a 2 dimensional axis controlled mechanism having a fluid extruder with replaceable cartridge. This replaceable cartridge feature makes it easier to refill the fluid. We have achieved tactile image of average height 4mm on a A4 sheet with ±1mm tolerance in width of tactile shapes.