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LENGTH TRANSLATOR
making length audible and tactile
Measuring Tape for the Visually Impaired
Length Translator demonstrates the length value with sound and touchable information. It makes a "CLICK" sound every 10cm. The braille on the inner part (yellow part in the images) shows the value in digits.
Scope
Low-tech Social Design
Digital Fabrication
Learning Barriers for the Visually Impaired
Children born with visual problems always have a difficult time learning anything that requires vision, such as color, space, direction, etc. Tactile and audible teaching materials are much easier for them to use.
Field Study with Related Association
The Taipei Parents' Association for the Visually Impaired is an institute that provides resources and special education services for visually impaired children. During the fieldwork and contextual interviews with the faculty members, I was surprised by the special tactile teaching materials. Even with partial or complete blindness, the children are still able to learn information through braille and tactile pieces with vivid colors.
 Tactile Map of China |  Handmade Tactile Map |  Tactile Globe |
|---|---|---|
 Detail of Tactile Globe |  Tactile Ocean Current Map |  Tactile Map |
 Tactile Geography Teaching Material |  Spirrow Bind Teaching Material |  Abacus |
 Abacus |
Expensive Teaching Materials
The staff also told me about the difficulty in manufacturing these materials since every piece was crafted by hand and require a lot of time and manpower. Thus, one of the goals of this project was to resolve the labor intensive process needed to get these teaching materials.
Insight
Create a tool that transforms length into audible and tactile information. Not only benefit those visually impaired people who have the need to measure the distance of length in everyday life, also helps the learners to understand the concept of length. Also, consider the feasibilty of production workflow
Feasibility-Based Prototyping
Special teaching materials are usually not cheap since most of them will not be mass manufactured. Thus, I hope Length Translator can take the advantage of Maker and open source culture as it is made thorough Automatic unit production with low cost.
Accessibility
Most structures can be 3D printed, other parts have standard specifications and can be found globally. People who need can download the file and recreate them.
Outer Shield
(3D printed)
Winding Spring
(standard specification)
Bearing
(standard specification)
Inner Hub
(3D printed)
Bottom Shield
(3D printed)
Measuring Sphere
(3D printed)
Clicking Spring
(standard specification)
Measuring String
(standard specification)
Steel Stick
(standard specification)
Measuring flat objects on the the table.
Pull, Hear, Touch
There are two braille windows on the Length Translator. The user can use either of them based on how the translator is held and what kind of object is measured.
Measuring objects in the space
Step 1 :
Pull out the string to the required length.
Step 2 :
While pulling, count the number of clicks. Each click represents 10 cm.
Step 3 :
Touch the braille indicator through the window for the remaining 1 cm units.
Number of
Click Sound
Number shows
in Braille
CM
Step 4 :
Add the information together and get the total length.
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