APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING RAISED DOT FORMATIONS

Abstract: A running endless belt (11) carries balls (31) inserted in and partly extending above the upper face of the belt. At a sorting station (B) certain balls are allowed to drop by gravity through a slot (25) in the support (23) and are collected at a store (45) inside the belt loop. Remaining balls from Braille symbols which can be read-off at the exposition area (C) by tactile perception. Empty belt holes are then refilled with balls, and the course is repeated. A displaceable bar (33) blocks the slot selectively under the control of signal input means (39, 40, 42). The invention solves the problem of making extensive literature available to people with visual defects at a low cost.

Description: Apparatus for performing raised dot formations The invention relates to an apparatus for performing raised dot formations, said apparatus comprising a running belt forming an endless loop and having a great number of holes adapted to receive balls therein. Particularly said dot formations are meant to represent symbols of the Braille-code type readable to people with visual defects. Books suitable for reading by blind people generally consist of pages of stiff paper material wherein the Braille symbols are formed by raised dots or embossments grouped in matrices of 2 x 3. The absence of one or more of the six dots in the matrix makes the symbols distinguishable and each representative of the correspond¬ ing alpha-numerical character. Such books are hard to manufacture and expensive, and are also bulky and difficult to handle. The object of the invention is to replace such permanent registra- tion of literature or the like by a running and temporary exposi¬ tion of successive small parts of the matter in question and to make said exposition readable to people with visual defects. In an apparatus of the above-mentioned kind the object of the in¬ vention is reached in principle by filling a great number of holes in the running endless belt with balls, sorting-out certain balls in a group of holes at a sorting station so as to form a Braille symbol of dots represented by balls extending above the upper face of the belt, reading-off the symbol by tactile perception at an exposition area and then erasing the symbol by filling all holes anew with balls for the next turn of the belt. The essential characterizing features of the apparatus according to the invention are set forth in the following claims. The- invention will now be more closely described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figures 1-3 refer to a first embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention. Figure 1 shows the same as viewed from a vertical longitudinal plane, Fig- ure 2 is a view taken from above, and Figure 3 is an enlarged per¬ spective view of a fragment of the apparatus taken at an incl ned angle from above. Figure 4 shows a first modification of the- de¬ tai l s of Figure 3. Fi gure 5 shows a second modification thereof in verti cal section. In the drawings, an endless belt 11 is laid in a loop around two parallel roll ers 13, 15 rotary about generally horizontal axes 14, 16 , one of them being driven by a motor 17 (or other powering means) . The belt is moved in the di rection of the arrow without sl ippage, perforation holes 19 at the edge of the bel t engaging pegs 21 on the roller 15. The belt comprises an upper substantial¬ ly horizontal or sl ightly incl ined path 18, a semicircul ar path 22 around the rol ler 15, a lower substantially horizontal or prefera¬ bly sl ightly upwardly incl ined path 22 and a semicircular path 24 around the rol ler 13. Between the rol lers 13 , 15 the upper bel t path 18 rests upon and is drawn in contact with an underlying sup¬ port 23 in the shape of a table. Closely situated parallel grooves 27 , 28 in the upper face of said table extend in the direction of travel of the bel t 11. The belt is perforated by a great number of small through holes 29 adapted to receive spherical ball s 31 and of a sl ightly greater diameter than that of the ball s. The holes are arranged in longi¬ tudinal and transverse rows and are dimensioned and spaced so as to form square groups corresponding to the Brai ll e matrix system. The ball s are made of steel , but some suitable plastic or ceramic material may be used instead. A preferred diameter of the ball s is of the order of 1.6 mm, and the thickness of the bel 11 is of the order of 0.2 mm. The belt holes are filled with balls at an area A of the lower path 22 of the belt loop, and after turning around the roller 13 the belt arrives at a second area B located close to the starting end of the upper run 18 of the belt. At said area there are provided means for selectively removing some of the balls from positions within the belt holes. Said means form a sorting station, in which selected balls are allowed to drop out by the action of gravity. From there the belt passes towards and past an exposition area C, where the pattern of Braille symbols formed by the remaining balls of a group can be read off by a blind person using his finger tips. The sorting station B is in principle arranged as a series of traps extending in a row transversely of the belt and each positioned below a longitudinal row of belt holes. Forming part of the sorting station is a slot 25 in the support 23, extending transversely thereof and having a dimension in the direction of travel of the belt somewhat greater than the diameter of the balls, so that balls can escape therethrough into the open space inside the belt loop. To the sorting station B there also belongs a series of obstacles placed in said slot 25 and selectively displaceable so as to either block the passage of balls through the slot or allow the dropping of balls by gravity into the interior of the belt loop. In the shown embodiment said obstacles are formed by vertical bars 33 which extend upwardly into the slot 25, their upper flat end faces 35 being flush with the bottoms of the grooves 27, 28. Said bars 33 can be shifted sideways, i.e. in the direction of the slot 25, between an active position (shown at the right of Figure 3) and an inactive position (shown at the left of Figure 3). In the active position any bar end 35 forms a "bridge" which supports the balls of a corresponding longitudinal row of balls during their passage of the slot 25. In the inactive position the bars allow ball s to pass through the slot and the thus downwardly opened escape way, as indicated by the line 37 and three ntersecting circles in Figure 3. In the embodiment shown in Figures 1 to 3 sai d bars 33 consist of ceramic material which due to the piezoelectric effect will bend under the influence of electric control impulses, their upper ends 35 moving in the slot * 25, as explained, while their lower ends are rigidly attached. A control device 39 supplying said electric impul ses to the bars is controlled by a computer 40 connected to a manually operable keyboard 42 or' some other input means, such as a punched tape, a disk record or a data memory, supplying the text to be presented at C either in alpha-numeral form or in digital form. The computer transforms the characters of this information into Braille-code and serves it to the control device 39. The computer 40 al so control s the motor 17 in order to synchronize the movement of the belt (either continuous or stepwise) with the operation of the bars. The speed of the belt can also be controlled manually. The balls sorted-out drop down into a closed space bordered by the belt loop and two opposed end wall s 41 of an enclosing cover. Beneath the sorting station B there is inserted a ball catching ramp 43 which diverts the rolling balls towards the roller 15. They are collected close to said roller to form a store 45 of balls resting upon the lower run 22 of the bel t. Said store suppl ies balls for refilling all empty holes of the belt. A possible excess of balls will be pushed back by a scrapin means 47 before the belt turns around the roll er 13 and starts a new turn. The apparatus thus far described may be completed by printing means for transmitting the Braille-readable tactile perceptible ball configuration into permanent impressions in a web of sheet material. Said printing means comprises a roller 55 having an external surface of yieldable material, about which a web 59 of sheet material is looped. The axis 54 of said roller is journalled - 5 in eccentric bearings 56 which are turnable by means of a handle 57. By manipulating the same the roller can and will be shifted from an off-lying inoperative position into the shown active position, in which it presses the web against the balls extending through holes of the running belt. 10 In the modification of Figure 4 the support table 23 has a completely flat upper face, i.e. it has no grooves as in Figure 3. Here the belt consists of rubber and has a thickness of the order of 0.7 mm, i.e. it is approximately as thick as half the diameter of the balls, in order securely to retain them in the holes and to 15 expose a part of the ball tops conveniently large for the tactile sensing of the Braille symbols. Figure 5 shows a further modification consisting in that the ball selection takes place by the use of magnetic forces. Above each longitudinal row of belt holes and opposite to the slot 25 of the 20 support table 23 there is placed an electromagnet 61 in such a position that the balls 31 roll or slide along its pole shoe 63. When electric current is supplied to the electromagnet, the same keeps the ball attracted during its passage of the slot 25, thus preventing it from dropping therethrough. -On the other hanH, when 25 the electromagnet is shut off, the gravity force prevails, and therefore the ball will drop freely through the slot 25. At the exposition area C the ball patterns are presented as on a book page, several parallel rows of consecutive characters being shown simultaneously and readable in the transverse direction of 30 the belt. According to a modification, the Braille characters may be read lengthwise of the belt, and in that case a simplified version of the apparatus may comprise a belt having merely three l ongitudinal rows of hol es. From the above it is evi dent that an apparatus is created, by the use of which people with vi sual defects are given the possibil ity of taking part, at a desired moment, of literature recorded in other forms than by Brail le code, and that other messages can be transmitted to them without significant del ay otherwise than orally. Of course, the above-described apparatus may be modified in several respects within the framework of the following claims.

Claims: J_.J__Λi I 1. Apparatus for performing raised dot formations, comprising a running belt (11) forming an endless loop, said belt being perforated by a plurality of small holes (29) each adapted to receive a ball (31) therein, characterised in that an upper horizontal or slightly inclined path (18) of the belt and the balls therein are supported by and drawn in contact with an underlying support (23), in that said belt is of a smaller thickness than the diameter of the balls, the balls with their uppermost parts extending above the upper face of the belt so as to be freely accessible for tactile perception, the apparatus further comprising means (43, 45) for filling empty belt holes with balls at a first area (A) of the belt along its looped path, for disposition in said holes, and means (25, 33, 61) for selectively removing some of the balls from positions within belt holes at another, second area (B) along said looped path. 2. Apparatus as recited in claim 1, characterised in that the belt holes are dimensioned and grouped in a readable Braille dot matrix system. 3. Apparatus as recited in claim 1 or 2, characterised in that said selectively ball removing means comprises a sorting station (at B) having means (33, 61) for releasing selected balls in belt holes by allowing the balls to drop away from said belt under the action of gravity. 4. Apparatus as recited in claim 3, characterised in that said sorting station comprises a downwardly directed, selectively blockable escape in the shape of a slot (25) formed in said belt support (23) and having a horizontal dimension in the direction of travel of the belt significently greater than the diameter of a ball. 5. Apparatus as recited in claim 4, characterised in that a plurality of obstacles are disposed in said slot (25) and each selectively displaceable to either block or allow the dropping of a ball through said slot. 6. Apparatus as recited in claim 5, characterised in that said obstacles consist of piezoelectric bars (33) fastened at one end and bendable under the influence of electric control signals controlled by a computer or the like. 7. Apparatus as recited in claim 1, 3 or 4, characterised in that said selectively ball removing means comprises a plurality of electromagnets (61) located above said looped path and positioned to, when energized, hold a ball in a belt hole in which it is disposed so that the ball will not drop out of said tape hole, and when de-energized not providing a ball holding action. 8. Apparatus as recited in claim 3, characterised in that beneath said sorting station (B) there are provided ball catching ramp means (43) for directing balls towards the straight lower path (22) of the belt to form a store (45) of balls thereupon, from which empty belt holes are ref llable. 9. Apparatus as recited in claim 1, characterised by the provision of printing means (55) for transmitting the Braille-readable tactile perceptible ball configuration into permanent impressions in a web (59) of sheet material. 10. Apparatus as recited in claim 9, characterised in that said printing means comprises a roller (55) having an external surface of yieldable material, about which the web (59) is looped, means (57) being provided for selectively moving said roller into a position pressing against balls extending through holes of the running belt (11).

Inventors: ERIKSSON BROR ALLAN, ERIKSSON, BROR, ALLAN
Applicants: ERIKSSON BROR ALLAN, ERIKSSON, BROR, ALLAN
Application year: 1985
Main classification: G09F9
IPC codes: G09B21, G09F9, H04N1