Trendy technology is finally innovating for the visually impaired with a brand-new braille smartwatch.
Whether it be an Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Gear, smartwatches are the must-have tech for your wrists, beating out traditional time-keepers with their fitness and telecommunication benefits.
However, blind people have – until now – been left behind, with each new smartwatch boasting stunning visual displays but little accessibility. All that’s about to change, however, thanks to the Dot Watch.
The Dot Incorporation release is the first braille and tactile smartwatch, designed with a stylish finish and fashioned to be as efficient as possible.
According to the Dot Incorporation website, the benefits of the watch are:
The Dot Watch lets you experience time in a completely new way: without sound, just by yourself. It provides direct access to all the practical features you need so many times throughout each day: Time and Date, Alarm Clock, Timer and Stopwatch. It even tells you the time down to the second. Truly, a new sense of time.
Braille is a form of written language for the blind or visually impaired. Essentially, letters of the alphabet and characters are represented by certain patterns of raised dots which are navigated using your fingertips.
While it’s the first braille smartwatch, it isn’t looking to exclude those who aren’t aware of how to use the language – in fact, the Dot Watch will even teach you.
The website adds:
The Dot Watch unleashes it’s full potential to those who can read braille. But it’s also the perfect device to get you started: The Dot Watch braille learning program is a simple, intuitive and entertaining way to learn and practice braille letters and words. Ready? Let’s go!
We believe every technology should be accessible to everybody. That’s why the Dot Watch can be set to Tactile Mode, which works completely without knowledge of braille: the time is simply displayed through the number of dots. A small idea with huge impact.
As well as winning several international awards for its design, the Dot Watch boasts an impressive battery life – powered by the company’s patented actuator technology, based on magnetism, power consumption is lowered to an absolute minimum, lasting up to 10 days with one charge. It also only weighs 60 grams.
If you’d like to buy one, they aren’t particularly cheap. To order to the UK, it’ll cost £353, while for US buyers it’ll set you back $399.
