Touch point

South Korea – Dot is the first smartwatch made specifically for the blind and visually impaired.

• Display uses braille to communicate with the user
• Converts text data into braille in real time

Many of our interfaces with the digital world rely on smooth touchscreens, making it impossible for those who read with braille to communicate using smart devices. Dot, a South Korean start-up, has developed the first smartwatch that features a braille display, making information online more accessible to the visually impaired.

‘Think of it like an Apple Watch or Pebble,’ says CEO Eric Ju Yoon Kim ‘but with a display made from braille so the visually impaired can communicate with the world in their hands’.

Costing just one tenth of the common tactile computer hardware, which suffers from the additional disadvantage that it is often too bulky to be portable, Dot converts incoming text data from a mobile device into braille in real time. Whether an e-book, tweet or iMessage, an actuator in the device causes small pins to protrude from the display, automatically scrolling so the user has an uninterrupted experience.

The Big Picture: Consumers want technology that serves them rather than the other way around. For more, watch our interview with Sonny Vu, co-founder of Misfit Wearables.