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Canute Braille eReader Will Cost About the Same as an iPhone

Multi-line Braille ereaders are the holy grail of reading technology, and it looks like one may soon be available to buy.

UK startup Bristol Braille Technology has developed the Canute, a multi-line Braille reader that is expected to retail for "around the cost of a new iPhone, not far off the price of a Perkins Brailler," BBT said on their website. "That’s around twenty times cheaper per cell than existing digital Braille devices."

Canute is the world’s first viable multi-line refreshable Braille e-reader; a ‘Kindle for blind people’. Available for a price comparable to a new iPhone or Perkins Brailler, Canute has been developed by Bristol Braille Technology with, by, and for the blind community.

Canute has been in development since 2012. In March 2018 it will begin its final pre-production testing pilot, prior to beginning sales later in the year. We’d love to give a specific release date, but its important to us to be transparent with our users: we want to hear back from the pilot programme feedback before we give a definitive date, and we don’t want to rush to market, only to deliver a sub-standard machine.

The Canute is supposed to hit the market later this year, but in the mean time BBT is showing off the Canute next Friday at the Royal National Institute Of Blind People. So if you are in London, you can check it out.

Other Braille tablets include the Blitab and an ongoing research project at the University of Michigan. Neither device has been released yet.

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Readers can’t Digest-Week 175 (7-March to 13-March) | March 12, 2018 um 5:32 pm

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