Wednesday 24 / April / 2024
Muscat: Vision-impaired people in Oman can now translate as many books as they want from seven different languages to Braille Arabic.
A Korea-based company, Dot Incorporation, unveiled the “Braille kindle” at COMEX 2018 held at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre. Oman is the first Middle East country to welcome the product.
Braille is a written language for the blind in which characters are represented by patterns of raised dots that people feel with their fingertips to read.
“The company invented the Braille kindle to help vision-impaired people around the world. The Dot electromagnetic actuator installed in the device will help people translate as many books as they want in eight languages including Arabic, English, Korean, Dutch, Chinese and a few more,” said Charlie Hyuk Soo Shin, Director/Biz Development, Dot Incorporation.
“The Braille kindle will be a great help to those who wish to pursue further studies or are fond of reading. Eventually, this will help diminish discrimination within society,” added Shin.
Smart watch for the blind
Dot also presented a smart watch specifically designed for vision-impaired people. Both devices accommodate eight languages, including Arabic.
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“The Dot Watch is a wearable device that connects a vision-impaired person to the mobile device through Bluetooth. The user can receive text and WhatsApp messages in Braille on the watch in Arabic or any of the other seven languages. It is practical and easy-to-use,” said Shin.
On learning that there are about 25,000 blind people in Oman, including people with low vision, who did not have an efficient and cost-effective technology to help them become a part of society, Dot decided to present both products to the companies and public through COMEX 2018, said Shin.
“The main idea for the company is not to make profits but to help vision-impaired people in all parts of the world. The available technology is expensive, bulky and often limited. Therefore, Dot offers cost-effective and easy-to-carry products compared with the existing ones,” said Shin.
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Both products are available in the market and can be purchased through Synchronised Business Solutions, official distributors in the Middle East.The cost of the Braille kindle is OMR385, while the watch costs OMR188.
