A practical solution to include visually impaired persons in the IT society
The TACMON project funded by the European Commission offers the SMEs with an innovative low-cost technology enabling to realize large area interactive graphical tactile displays as user interface for the visually impaired to access electronic information. TACMON technology can contribute to the creation of new business opportunities in assistive technology market for learning, leisure, communicating via Internet, among many others for the blind community. The targeted product facilitated by the TACMON technology, the graphical tactile display responds to important market demands in industry, education and other sectors that lack appropriate inclusive technology adaptable to meet the needs of their visually impaired clients. The technology currently under development is based on an electrostatic-pneumatic-hybrid concept realized with high-end Micro-Electro-Mechanical-System (MEMS) technologies. Upon the system specification achieved through discussions with experts in the field backed up with a thorough market survey, the RTD partners developed the core technology and demonstrated working prototypes which were systematically evaluated for further optimization of the technology. Supportive hardware and software are currently under development to enable testing and validation by visually impaired users. These developments have commenced and scheduled by the time when completed laboratory test will be performed to perfect the system. The last phase will involve the full validation by real end users who will have the opportunity to exploit the potential of this brand new technology.
Countries
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, United Kingdom