Metabraille

- One minute read - 200 words

Metabraille is a mobile Braille keyboard. This keyboard can be used to remotely control iOS and Android smartphones and PCs via Bluetooth. The assembly is designed for blind and visually impaired people. Metabraille was developed in a participatory Design thinking process as part of the Define project.

Metabraille and the Define project are described in a youtube video.

The keyboard housing of the Metabraille mobile Braille keyboard is red and made of plastic (125 x 95 x 25 mm). The housing shape is also rectangular, with a flat, trapezoidal extension on the long side. The shape resembles a house with windows in the middle. The ten keys are white and rectangular. Eight keys are arranged in four rows and two columns on the flat front.

Metabraille front, CC BY-SA 4.0 BSVWNB

Key data

  • 8 keys for entering Braille
  • 2 thumb keys for entering spaces and switching to different modes
  • Mobile application, no surface is necessary when writing.
  • Dimensions 125 x 95 x 25 mm
  • Erich Schmid's 10 Keys Braille – based on German Computer Braille and the main input options of a QWERTZ PC keyboard
  • BLE Bluetooth Low Energy
  • Battery BL-5C – known and popular through Nokia phones
  • Assembly is optimized for people with blindness or visual impairments

Documentation

Open source

The Metabraille sources are publicly available under the CERN Open Hardware Licence Version 2 – Strongly Reciprocal and listed as certified open source hardware UID AT000009. the quality of the thechnical documentation has been confirmed by Open Source Ecology Germany e.V. according to the first official standard for open source hardware DIN SPEC 3105.