Meet the Dot: The World’s First Braille Smartwatch
Meet the Dot, a game-changing watch that lets you feel the time.
Smart devices have changed the way many people do everything from keeping track of time to communicating. But for those who are visually impaired, these devices that many of us now take for granted are not always fully adaptable. Now there’s a smartwatch that has been developed specifically for people who are visually impaired. It’s called The Dot Watch, and unlike most assistive smartwatches for the blind which rely on audio prompts, the Dot displays messages four braille characters at a time on its screen.
While the watches main function is to tell the time and date, the wearable can be connected to a smartphone application called the Dot Watch App, to receive information such as road navigation, weather notifications, calls and text messages, as well as social media alerts.
The Dot is made from silver aluminium, and the watch utilises four electro-magnetic actuators that seamlessly relay information through textural dots. These automatically adopt the formations of braille numbers and symbols. The design of the watch is simple and beautiful.
Dot claims that, while other braille displays read one line at a time, the display on the Dot Watch is an active one. It is designed to “pass by the user’s fingertips as if it were on a moving belt”, said Alex Lee, Dot’s sales and marketing director.
The technology is touch-sensitive, meaning that the second a user takes their finger off the final dot in a sentence, the braille formation changes to the next. The user is able to flip between messages by tapping the face of the watch or manually by using the side buttons and dial.
Currently the smart software supports English and Korean Braille only, but the company hopes to add braille alphabets for Japanese, Arabic, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chines and Hindu in the near future.
