The Read Read
Braille literacy is critical to the development of blind children, yet less than ten percent of blind children are taught to read Braille. Alex Tavares, an experienced phonics instructor, created The Read Read to address this problem. Without the need of an instructor, a student places letter tiles and the device annunciates each syllable to intuitively connect the spoken letter with its corresponding Braille cell. Alex's first functional prototype showed great promise, but was unable to reliably recognize each unique tile.
Alex searched for months for a more reliable solution. He finally found a Github contribution of mine that solved his problem, and he reached out for help. Within a few work days, I was able to build a working system to suit his requirements, listed below:
- Read data from unique RFID tags at six indexed locations.
- When the Braille cell of a placed tile is touched, play the sound file corresponding to that tile.
- Store sound files in such a way that new sounds can be easily added in future product updates.
- Use components that are easily sourced for production.
I instructed Alex from a distance in duplicating my hardware to combine with his fit and finish prototype, and we proved each component of the device worked as required. Alex has presented our prototype at dozens of competitions and won the MIT 100K Audience Choice award and top prize at MassChallenge Rhode Island, among others. These prizes will help fund the creation of hundreds of units that will be tested by teachers all around the world.
