Looking just as sleek and well designed as some of the best smartwatches available on the market at the moment a new smartwatch from South Korean developer Dot is set to hit shelves soon that’s chosen to take a different direction to the rest in its quest to allow the blind to also enjoy the use of assistive watches. Others already do this through audio assistance however The Dot is capable of displaying up to four braille characters on its face at any one time which makes it the first of its kind.
Using four active dynamic braille cells at a time however doesn’t come without its challenges and although simple in appearance the Dot took nearly three years to develop, presenting challenges surrounding the watches durability and usability along the way. Aside from being able to read from the four cells made from six balls each, users will also be able to send simple responses to messages through the watches side buttons.
The CEO and founder of Dot, Eric Juyoon Kim, says that the project was inspired after noticing how a blind classmate was carrying around so many books whilst fellow classmates were mostly using tablets. After learning that the books were all braille he felt compelled to make newer technology more accessible to the blind, The Dot promising to be the first of many products.
Just like most smartwatches The Dot will connect to smartphones via Bluetooth and has an Open API which will allow anyone to develop new apps for it. Soon Dot will start delivering its watches to the some 140,000 people that backed it, including Stevie Wonder according to the company, whilst it was also be hitting stores in London in March, 2017 for $320 (price may very depending on country). You can find out more about the watch here.
To see more on The Dot check out the video below:
via UltraLinx
