Braille maps made using 3D-printer
A Rutgers undergraduate student and his professor used a 3D printer to make a Braille map of the Joseph Kohn Training Center, a state-funded facility for the blind and visually impaired in New Brunswick.
“It was a very fulfilling experience,” said Jason Kim, a senior mechanical engineering student in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in Rutgers’ School of Engineering. “I learned a lot. The most difficult part was trying to imagine what it would be like to be blind myself so I could better tackle the problem, and it opened my eyes to the whole visually impaired and blind community.”
Howon Lee, an assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering whose research focuses on 3-D printing, said the maps are a form of GPS for the blind and visually impaired.
“Design, using this technology, practicing — everything is important — but I think what is more important is to put yourself in their shoes,” Lee said.
Joseph Kohn Training Center staffers lauded the durable maps, saying they would be very helpful for center students. The center has clunky, old wooden maps with a few braille labels on walls.
Professor Lee said he got the idea of making 3-D maps after visiting the Korea Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea. The institute created educational materials for small children with a 3-D printer, and he was impressed.
“Instead of printing letters on top of a 2-diminensional sheet, you just do this over and over again, layer upon layer, until you have a final 3-dimensional product,” Lee said.
The new maps — made with state-of-the-art 3-D printers at Rutgers — are a little larger than a small computer tablet. They’re in a binder so students can easily carry them for reference. They also have a legend, or guide, in braille, a feature missing from prior maps. The legend helps limit the amount of map training needed.
Lee said there’s only one copy of the maps so far and the goal is to lower map-making costs so every student at the training center gets a map on day one.
Category: Features, Technology & Devices
