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Text to Braille Conversion System

Conference Paper · September 2021

DOI: 10.1109/ICSES52305.2021.9633940

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 Text to Braille Conversion System
2021 International Conference on Innovative Computing, Intelligent Communication and Smart Electrical Systems (ICSES) | 978-1-6654-3521-5/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICSES52305.2021.9633940

Rhea Sawant, Prabhav, Pranjal Shrivastava, Dr. Priti Shahane and Dr. Harikrishnan R

Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Pune, India
E-mail : rheasawant123@[Link] prabhav1billion@[Link] pranjalshrivastava13012001@[Link]
pritis@[Link] rhareish@[Link]

Abstract :- Braille is a vital means of communication; it is a This project aims at bridging the communication gap that
system for blind persons, one of touch reading and writing in prevents the society from being at ease with the [Link]
which raised dots are impressions which represent the letters would no longer require knowing braille himself to be able
of the alphabet. It is a combination of six impressions that to communicate with someone who is visually impaired.
each represent a type of alphabet and it also contains
equivalent representation combinations for punctuation
marks. Braille is typically read by using the sense of touch, [Link] REVIEW
by running fingers across, from the left to the right along
each of the lines. Braille is an extremely important tool for Technology has made human life addicted to comfort, but
blind people to educate themselves and it is a critical there are still a group of disadvantaged groups who are
component that supports not only educational advancement, struggling to find an innovative way to facilitate the
but sub consequently also increases employment prospects. communication process. According to the World Health
It is just like sign language, it is universally accepted but Organization, about 285 million people are blind, 300
mostly, only the visually impaired people learn braille,
unlike sign language which at least the family members of
million are deaf, and 1 million are deaf. [1]
the deaf or hard of hearing individuals learn to be able to Communication plays an extremely important role in
communicate with them. The blind should be taught braille everyday life. But it is difficult for ordinary people to
to be able to become literate, which is a necessity in today's communicate with deaf-mute people, and vice versa. It is
world. Braille is a much harder language than sign as there the only means through which we may share our thoughts
exists a lot of combinations of the impressions of the six or transmit a message, yet a person with a handicap finds it
raised dots that are not easy to memorize. Text to braille difficult to communicate with those who are not disabled.
Conversion system acts as a means of communication Those with disabilities will almost certainly experience
between those who do not know braille and the blind who do some form of social isolation. [2] There are over 1.3
understand how to read braille. One would no longer
require knowing braille himself to be able to communicate
billion people over the globe who suffer from vision
with someone who is visually impaired. He could just simply problems. Unfortunately, the developing countries are
type in normal text and those texts would get translated to where about 80% of the total blind people live, with
Braille characters in real time. restricted facilities for them.[3]They are typically required
to read printed information in Braille and when that does
Keywords—Text to Braille Conversion, Braille, Braille not happen, it adds to a lot of difficulty, to add to that these
Converter persons have limited access. Although there is a lot of
electronic technology that can help them read, the costs are
[Link] prohibitive.

The World Health Organization(WHO) did a survey in The visually impaired person uses the Braille system for
2020 the results of which were that about 76 million reading or writing. The Braille system essentially creates
people out of the 7.8 billion in the world are visually a basic cell which consists of six raised dots or
impaired. Being blind in an environment designed for the impressions that are embossed outwards and aligned in a
sighted means it is expected that a lot of typical mishaps domino pattern, and each braille, or alphabet letter, is
happen. Dealing with sight loss is already a challenge, on built up of combinations of dots from this basic cell.
top of that, the societal stigma attached to the blind and the According to a study, the average reading rate of
lack of employment opportunities make life even more youngsters who read in Braille is just about half that of
difficult, these are all factors frequently leading blind or print readers who read with their eyes open. This is
low vision individuals in isolation. This stigma makes it because human eyes have the potential to read multiple
difficult to adapt, leading to a loss of social and self- words at once, while fingers can only read Braille one
acceptance. Society has a big role to play in the betterment word at a time.[4]One of the most essential ways for
of the lives of the disabled, blind, or not. Besides treating visually impaired persons to acquire information is
them as equals and not considering them any less there is through the braille system. According to National Braille
also a need to minimize the communication gap that lies in Press (2011) (NBP), blind persons have a tough time
between. The Text to Braille Conversion system that is obtaining work (costing the US $8.0 billion per year in
discussed in this paper is one such attempt at inclusivity. lost production), although the majority of those employed

Authorized licensed use limited to: Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology. Downloaded on February 08,2022 at [Link] UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 are braille readers.[5] The inability to interpret visual text mind: to convert optical text to braille in order to help
has a significant influence on the quality of life of visually visually impaired people read printed publications. This is
impaired persons.[6] Many speech synthesis based a remedy to the delays, if not outright failures, in
technological equipment have been developed as well to translating or printing braille versions of common reading
combat this problem and even though braille competes materials. In this particular system, a photo of the text that
with speech synthesis, it provides the same natural needed to be converted or translated into braille was
reading experience as sighted persons but does not help recorded by the system's optical character recognition
the deaf. On asking participants in our experiments about engine. The digital texts are then sent to a braille haptic
the effectiveness of voice synthesis interfaces versus device through the internet. This gadget is a piezoelectric-
tactile ones, they expressed a strong preference for the based haptic system that is made up of many haptic pins
latter, owing to their superior control over information that are configured to look like the braille writing system.
flow. Nonetheless, numerous potentially valuable To determine the system's performance, several trials
prototype devices have been built and are about to be were carried out. Overall, 95.68 percent of the system was
examined in this country, at least one of which is from found to be reliable. [10]
another country. However, if these gadgets are ever to be
used by the blind, methods for evaluation, field trials, This research paper also proposes the implementation of a
manufacturing, and deployment must be established. The prototype device that enables one-way communication
field of sensory-aids research initiatives that are currently using a microcontroller-based technology which is
active is examined. Several efforts are aimed at making between persons who are differently abled (deaf, dumb,
braille more convenient and accessible through the use of and blind) and those who are not. This will be a text to
computer technology. Nonetheless, despite the undeniable braille conversion system that will make use of Portable
significance of these advancements, braille's utility is Technology and Arduino Circuit Boards to provide the
restricted by its size, cost, and transcribing time. Several required means of communication. The code for the
technologies are being developed to allow direct access to conversion to braille from text is written for the Arduino
printed materials. These devices convert optical pictures microcontroller that is used. The text is taken from a
from a printed page into aural or tactile displays, but they keyboard in real time and then the rotation of the motors
require motivation and training to use well. These creates the required braille impression which can then be
machines are known as "direct-translation" units, and they sensed by the user.
are made to be simple and inexpensive. Other systems use
print recognition algorithms to construct a reading [Link]
machine that can output braille or voice. These machines
have the ability to read at a faster rate than direct- To convert text to braille , input is being taken from the
translation machines, and their use should be easier to keyboard of a laptop , one letter at a time. The user types
pick up than direct-translation machines, but at the cost of the letter in the serial monitor window of Arduino. After
complexity and high cost. [7] Even though braille is much receiving the letter, Arduino processes it according to the
harder to grasp, it provides the user with the necessary source code. Fig. 1 shows the block diagram for this
chance to interact with the source of information and working. In order to simulate braille letters there will be 6
allows them to have an active role in retrieving the servo motors connected to the Arduino and the swing arms
information they seek. In contrast, with voice synthesis, of these motors are connected to 6 metal rods. When the
the user takes on a more passive role, which has the servo motors rotate by a small angle the connected rods
disadvantage of taking more effort to focus attention as correspondingly move backwards or forward depending
needed and remember the useful portion of the upon the direction of rotation. This back-and-forth motion
information flow.[5] Given the importance of such of the rods will result in a depression or elevation on the
emerging technology in the education of young blind surface of the device. With 6 rods arranged in 3 rows and 2
children, creating a low-cost device for converting the columns we can create all braille letters. The source code
Braille code to the alphabet would enable schools to of the device is a simple if else construct , all alphabets
address the communication difficulty not only from an will be saved and their braille equivalents will be the
educational but also from a financial standpoint.[8]The overall output of the system, this will be in terms of servo
tactile channel is the primary means of communication for rotations by a small positive angle for elevation and a
those with hearing disabilities and those who are visually small negative angle for depression that will raise the
impaired. As a result, technical assistive devices for the metal road and result in the kind of impressions that
hard of hearing and visually challenged should turn someone who understands braille can use to read what
internal stimuli into helpful tactile sensations in some someone needs to convey. It is extremely hard for some
way. Many issues are impeding the development of such individuals to acquire fundamental and vital data required
assistive gadgets, such as the small population of deaf- for their living. They are at a danger of being socially
blind people. This indicates a constrained market with avoided because of this. A text to braille converter hence is
constrained costs.[9] Another system-prototype based on an attempt at bridging the communication gap that is
a Raspberry Pi module was created with a similar goal in caused.

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 V. COMPONENTS REQUIRED

TABLE I. Components required for Text to Braille

Conversion system
Manufacturer and
Sl. Part Qty Description
PartNumber
9V-42mA
Micro-
1. ArduinoMBAR 1 (AT mega
controller
328)
Servo
2. ADRAxXSG90 6 (5-6)V-1A
motor
Male-
Jumper TECHLEADSTL- 1 Male,Male-
3.
wires 26105 set Female,Fema
le-Female
Male
Header ScriptronicsSRG00 5
4. &FemalePin
pins 91/92 set
Headers
Type-
Data TECHTONICSTEC
5. 1 AtoType-
cable H1735-00
BUSB Cable
Copper
TechDeliversTD- [30cm *
6. clad 1
CLAD12GE 30cm] board
board
LCD
16x2 data
alphanum Silicon
7. 1 LCDdisplay
eric TechnoLabs(16x2)
board
display

Table I. lists a table of components required for the Text to

Braille Conversion System and some important details
about it including the quantity of these components needed
and a short description about each of those.

VI. SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM AND PCB LAYOUT

A schematic which is often known as a schematic diagram,

Fig. 1. Block Diagram of Text to Braille Conversion is a representation of the elements of a system that uses
system abstract, graphic symbols rather than realistic photographs
to represent the elements.
[Link] STATEMENT
The schematic shown in Fig. 2 was made on EasyEDA
To take text from a keyboard and convert them into and also further used for making the PCB layout.
equivalent braille letters so that someone who has no
knowledge of braille can communicate with a visually
impaired person. This is an attempt to serve as a bridge
between communication gap that may arise for a variety of
reasons.

Authorized licensed use limited to: Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology. Downloaded on February 08,2022 at [Link] UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Fig. 2. Schematic Diagram (EasyEDA) for Text to Braille Conversion system

Fig 3. shows the two-dimensional PCB layout of the Text

to Braille Conversion System as made in EasyEDA with
the help of the schematic from the same software.

Fig. 4. Enclosure for Text to Braille Conversion system

VIII. CONCLUSION
Fig. 3 . 2-D PCB Layout for Text to Braille Conversion
system The Text to Braille Conversion System is an extremely
relevant tool in today’s time. The main idea behind the
making of this Conversion system is that it is a translator
VII. ENCLOSURE
or a converter that takes alphabets from a keyboard or a
keypad and then converts the letters into braille language
Fig.4 shows the Enclosure of the Text to Braille
one by one with the help of servo motors that have
Conversion system as made on Fusion 360.
metallic rods that rotate at certain angles when a
particular alphabet is sent into the conversion system.
This product is an attempt at bridging the communication
gap between those who are visually impaired and those
with vision. Using this, someone can communicate with
the blind people without requiring knowledge of braille
scripture themselves. With the help of this project, it is
possible to employ someone who is visually impaired to
do basic tasks by giving instructions through the Text to

Authorized licensed use limited to: Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology. Downloaded on February 08,2022 at [Link] UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Braille Conversion system which can then be read by [5] Motto R. Paolo, D. Vittorio, M. Luca, P. Erminio, Del G. Paolo
and P. Eros,“A new dynamic tactile display for reconfigurable
someone who knows the braille language. This product braille implementation and tests,” Frontiers in
uses basic electronic components, simple microcontroller Neuroengineering, 2014.
technology and knowledge of C programming to solve a [6] H. Goto and M. Tanaka,“Text-Tracking Wearable Camera
socially relevant [Link] Text to Braille Conversion System for the Blind,”10th International Conference on
Document Analysis and Recognition, 2009.
System can be used by people and serves the possibility [7] P. W. Nye and J. C. Bliss; Sensory aids for the blind, “A
of increasing and improving employment as well as challenging problem with lessons for the future,” in Proceedings
higher education prospects. of the IEEE, 1970.
[8] L. A. D. Arbes, J. M. J. Baybay, J. E. E. Turingan, and M. J. C.
Samonte, “Tagalog text-to-braille translator tactile story board
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