cross-posted from: https://wolfballs.com/post/9592
cross-posted from: https://wolfballs.com/post/9591
Ok so I'm requesting feedback or some tweaks on this design idea
so someone on discussions has continued interest in the braille display idea and posted his design
This got me thinking of my own independent design
I started by thinking maybe we could try to translate the idea to a mechanical computer, like if you saw the video of the Jacquard loom, you could have punched cards and then whichever holes are open, something could go up through them and then that would be the braille dots
Then I started to think that this could probably be made electro-mechanical or digitized. I have the pin art device in mind: https://infogalactic.com/info/Pin_Art
So basically each "pin" would have a door that opens or closes, and then a program would just send which doors close or open, to create the braille design. There was a programmable "pin art" project posted online, so it must be possible. Then maybe something soft like rubbery plastic like on video game controllers could be on the pin tops.
picture the pins held up by "doors" by gravity, then the doors open, creating a pattern, then you pull the pins up and the doors all close again to reset it (thought it would be important to clarify this part so people can visualize it) - also think of the "pin art" device but with no clear backing on it, and with another layer of "doors" to control which go through and which don't on the bottom side, if that gives any more clarification of how I am thinking of this
My question would be what you could use to open or close the doors?
The mechanism could be manually reset to empty by raising all the pins together with a lever, or done by the device electrically.
So you could hypothetically create an alternative design to braille books this way with punch cards, similar to manual computers.
I really liked the experience of the cross-pollination or cross-fertilization of ideas, of braille and mechanical computers.
Anyway, any idea on cost effective programmable "doors" to make this feasible?