Say hello to the tixel: New touch screens allow blind to read braille

Kes: I hadn't even heard of the tixel before reading this article but, aside from being a cool new technology, it's fun to say. If I ever get that cyber guide dog, I think I will name her Tixel.

New display technology is allowing users to "feel" touch screens, giving the blind a way to interact with mobile devices.

Senseg's E-Sense technology,
http://senseg.com/
being developed in Sweden, recreates the sensation of different textures on touch screen devices. It uses "tixels," or "tactile pixels," to generate an electric field a few millimeters above the device's surface, enabling skin to feel finely tuned sensations replicating different textures.
The technology is similar to the concept of haptic feedback, which vibrates to confirm that a finger touch has been accepted, but has even farther-reaching implications.
Braille reading would be one immediate application for the technology. The blind and visually-impaired would be able to take advantage of the tactile-pixel technology, assisting them in reading messages on touch screen devices like smartphones. Down the road, the technology may even allow people to, for example, touch the face of a newborn baby or hold the hand of the long-lost friend.
Senseg said the technology may also create knobs, buttons and other tactile elements for the increasingly-popular mobile gaming market. Handset makers, currently struggle for placement of controls on the limited space of smartphones, may also find a use for tactile displays.


http://blogs.forbes.com/mobiledia/2011/07/12/new-touch-screens-allow-blind-to-read-braille

First chapter of my book on art and blindness completed

Also the introduction. The working title is _Six Ways of Looking at an Elephant_. I expect I will be doing more tweaking, and I need to do another pass in order to add the footnotes, but I think this is going to be the most difficult chapter--I keep forgetting how complicated lines, shapes, and forms really are. Also, I had to spend a lot of time figuring out the format of how to explain art terms, and deciding which terms absolutely needed to be in the first chapter without making that chapter huge ("elements of art" is pretty basic, "principles of design" can come later, especially since art instructors don't necessarily agree what all those principles are, just that they exist).

When I have a second chapter, I may ask for beta readers to give feedback on comprehensibility and whether I am squeezing too much into a chapter.

The marvelous toy

My most favorite toy ever was a metal thingie I bought in a science store. It was basically made of wires hinged in all sorts of ways so that one could make an almost infinite variety of geometric shapes. I've been looking for a replacement for years, might this
http://www.smithsonianstore.com/new-arrivals/toys/chrome-tangle-68049.html
be it?