Push the boundaries
of accessibility.

Key Features

Built for a new sense.

Real-time

Unlike existing solutions, Dot Pad provides output with real-time refreshing cells, allowing users to consume more dynamic content than ever before.
Dot Actuators

Dot Pad’s cells are powered by the innovative Dot actuator technology: ten times smaller, lighter, and more energy efficient than conventional devices.
Dual Display

Dot Pad has two areas for graphics and text, giving users the opportunity to seamlessly switch between different types of content.
Connectivity

Dot Pad can be connected to the iPhone or iPad with a simple Bluetooth or USB-C connection. No extra installations required.
Integration

Dot Pad works with iOS screenreader VoiceOver to detect and convert graphic assets into tactile output for the cells.
Image Explorer

The buttons on the Dot Pad allows users to go into the details of the image with options to invert, zoom, and pan.
Image Processing

Edge Detection through VoiceOver is used to convert graphic assets into tactile output for the cells.

Use Cases

Dot Pad opens up a new category of app development for different scenarios:
Tactile graphics digitalizes education or the visually impaired who once relied on physical materials for studying graphs, diagrams, equations, and more.
Dot Pad boosts diverse creativity by giving the visually impaired the power to create on their tablet and convert it (in real-time) to tactile graphics.
All kinds of media from the entertainment industry, which were once restricted to alt-text, are now accessible through the Dot Pad.
With tactile decks, plans, and reports, Dot Pad makes the workplace more inclusive to create more employment opportunities for the visually impaired.
Apart from the above, simple applications like camera, map, messaging, and social media in tactile formats make daily-life more accessible.

Specifications

The dual display has 30x10 cells for graphics and 20x1 cells for text.
A button assistance for navigation.
The processor used is an ARM Cortex M4 32-bit 120 MHz
RAM of 64 kb and flash memory of 128kb.
Enabled with Bluetooth LE V5.0 for connectivity and two USB-C ports for data transfer and charging.
Portable in size 273.6(L) x 228.5(W) x 16.3(H) mm, and lightweight (1.2 kg)
Battery lasts up to 11 hours depending on usage.

Development

Development Environment

Development is supported by the latest Xcode with Xcode 13 or higher, which requires a Mac device with MacOS 12 Monterey or later. AxBrailleMap is included in the Cocoa Framework.
AxBrailleMap

Dot Pad works with AxBrailleMap which is one of Apple's Accessibility APIs that supports displaying visual information such as images and graphs using braille.
VoiceOver

VoiceOver checks if an image is available and calls to produce tactile output on the Dot Pad. Text information detected by VoiceOver is converted to braille output on the text panel.
Tactile File format

Dot has proposed a tactile graphic file format which would store the required tactile map information to produce better tactile output on the Dot Pad.