@raymaccarthy Right, there are braille dymo printers, I've never heard of computer-based ones, but manual ones, sure. The tape is thicker and wider and the printer is bigger.
And yes, with braille it's not just the normal mental plasticity issues of learning a new script, but also the sensorial issues of learning to read with a sense you haven't used for that before; and for some people even being able to tell the dots apart can be a challenge.
@modulux
Hacking a manual one to work off a PC wouldn't be hard. Geared stepper motor to turn dial (if it's like a dymo), solenoid to punch and a sensor for one position (such as cut).
No driver needed. Emulate USB serial with €5 PIC micro.
Or make from scratch. You only need one column of punches and advance tape small amount in character and several times for character space.
Is it really only 2 columns and 3 rows? I guess once it was invented only the tiniest changes were possible.
@raymaccarthy In general yes, 2 columns, 3 rows, 6 dots altogether. Though there's computer braille which has 8 dots (2 columns, 4 rows). Most characters are the same but the lowest row is typically used for special characters and such.
