It’s Monday again. And what does that mean?
It’s podcast time at Braille 200!
Today, we’re revisiting a topic from the past. We’re taking another look at the Metabraille, which we introduced some time ago. This time through an interview with Johannes Střelka-Petz, recently featured on the European Blind Union’s YouTube channel as part of a new series.
The English transcript of the interview is attached below.
We hope you enjoy listening, reading, sharing – and of course, subscribing to the channel!
English Transscript of the Interview
q: Welcome everybody to the first episode of “#a11y Techies”,
this is a segment where we talk with experts working in the area of accessibility, trying to bring forward solutions, innovative solutions aimed at improving the daily lives of blind and partially sighted people.
Today, joining me, we have Johannes Střelka-Petz from Vienna.
Hello Johannes, how are you doing?
A: Hello, Nacho, nice to meet you.
Q: It’s great having you here, Johannes. Today you are going to tell us more about this invention of yours, the Metabraille keyboard.
Before this interview, you gave me a little bit of an insight of this invention, how this came into your mind. Can you tell us how everything started? What was the origin of it? Could you let us know what it consists of?
A: The original idea was to develop a mobile keyboard for smartphones.
I found the blueprints of a one-handed short keyboard with six keys. The six keys were arranged like the dots of a braille cell. This led to the implementation of the braille alphabet.
I presented this prototype to the Braille expert Erich Schmied. Since then, we have continued to develop the system together, our latest keyboard is called Metabraille.
The keyboard has eight keys for entering computer braille, two additional keys for the thumbs can be used to enter spaces and other control characters.
The device is 125 mm long, has a width of 95 mm and a depth of 25 mm.
The keyboard can be used while standing or walking. Our input device is held with both hands and does not require a work surface.
Metabraille works like a remote control for the smartphone. The keyboard replaces the touchscreen.
If the text-to-speech output is provided with headphones, the remote control smartphone can remain in the pocket.
q: Very good, I have a question: What gap in the market of devices for blind and partially sighted people is your invention trying to fill?
A: Smartphones are an available aid for people with blindness or visual impairments.
Mobile text input is an important part of smartphone control. Touchscreens offer much less tactile feedback compared to phones with buttons. This makes text input on the
touchscreen more difficult than with buttons, speech recognition in public spaces is often disturbed by ambient noise, it can be annoying for other people,
is not private or can be unavailable due to the lack of an Internet connection.
Metabraille simplifies the mobile input and editing of text.
Q: As of now, it’s compatible with smartphone Systems such as Android and iOS, even with devices that use Bluetooth.
Are you also exploring the compatibility of the Metabraille keyboard with computers?
A: Metabraille is a Bluetooth keyboard, all devices that support Bluetooth keyboards work with Metabraille. Supported devices are the smartphones and Metabraille maps all 105 keys of a computer keyboard. Therefore, computers can also be operated via the Bluetooth keyboard.
Q: I want to go deep on being compatible with other formats.
At the moment, you’re also studying how you can couple the invention with the use of classic Braille,
especially for those visually impaired users who are not tech savvy. What’s the state of the matter on that subject? Could you tell us how we can instruct visually impaired people who
have never touched before in assembling those devices themselves?
Would it also be supported in other languages?
A: Terminal devices recognise Metabraille as an ordinary keyboard.
The key combinations for entering braille are translated into keystrokes in the keyboard firmware. For input, we use the European version of computer Braille, namely Eurobraille.
Computer Braille is known from braille displays for the output of computers. We now also want to support the braille alphabets of the languages in the European Union. These are the classic braille alphabets with six dots. These are widely used, but differ from language to language.
We have, therefore, applied for funding for this project.
Metabraille was developed to be assembled by people who are blind or visually impaired. A group of people with blindness or visual impairments
determined the design goals and tested the step-by-step developed results.
In order to maximise the number of parts that can be assembled by the user, we opted for components with plug-in connections, clearly identifiable components with definable orientation
and precise descriptions in the simplest possible language are crucial for assembly.
Q: One of your main objectives, as of now, is raising awareness of the potential of this device.
Johannes, have authorities in Austria, your country, been open to supporting you in your mission?
A: We were helped by the Science Prize Inclusion through Science and Technology called WINTEC, from the Ministry of Social Affairs of Austria. And we got presentation opportunities at the Vienna
Research Festival and invitations to the Zero Project conference. But in our opinion, we have not yet been able to communicate the potential of self-manufacturable and repairable
assistive technology to public authorities. We care for inclusion in local makerspaces or fab labs,
which are shared digital fabrication labs. In particular, this access to digital manufacturing technologies for people with disabilities has great potential for social and economic participation.
Q: One last question, Johannes. It’s been very insightful what we’ve listened to until now, but one last question, please: you’ve been working closely actually with visually impaired people to design the Metabraille keyboard. What would you underscore from their side throughout this co-creation process?
A: I want to mention 3D printers, they have shown great potential, digitally finished tangible objects from the 3D printer were very well received by the involved people with blindness or visual impairments. Highly customized aids could be produced; for example, we are producing signs in braille and profiled writing. 3D printers are not yet fully accessible, but this could soon improve.
The results motivate our group to further improve the accessibility of 3D printers.
Q: Great, great. Thank you very much, Johannes, for taking your time and attending this space, #a11y Techies, where we like to learn more about the different initiatives that are currently going on or that are in the making when it comes to enabling blind and partially sighted people to lead more independent lives.
Thank you very much, Johannes.
A: Thank you for having me, it was a pleasure.
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