Project Grant R43EY033576
- Federal Grant Award Summary A Cubed Design LLC (doing business as Accessible Affordable Accelerated Design) received a $305,000 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships (TIP) program (CFDA 47.084) to develop a novel refreshable Braille device designed to address cost and durability limitations in current Braille technology. The primary deliverable is a cost-effective, mechanically-based refreshable Braille display featuring...
- This National Science Foundation Project Grant of $100,000 supports the development of chemical fuel-powered Braille displays at Cornell University from July 2022 to June 2023. The goal is to create an affordable, portable multiline Braille display to improve digital accessibility for blind and visually impaired individuals. Currently, Braille displays can only present a single line of text and cost over $3,000, limiting their widespread adoption. The proposed technology is a soft,...
- This $274,999 National Science Foundation Project Grant under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program aims to develop a wearable, computer vision-based, real-time Braille-to-speech learning device. Braillewear will receive funding to establish technical feasibility of a device that detects intricate textural patterns in a contactless approach and provides auditory feedback to augment mechanosensory learning. If successful, the technology could unlock the full potential of...
- Federal Grant Award Summary Award Details: Funding Agency: National Eye Institute (NEI) Federal Grant Program: Vision Research (CFDA 93.867) Awardee: Newhaptics Corp, Ann Arbor, Michigan Total Obligated Funds: $559,871 Award Date: July 1, 2025 Project Period: Two years (completion date June 30, 2027) Products and Services: Newhaptics Corp will develop TITO (Touch-In-Touch-Out), a refreshable Braille and tactile graphic display device equipped with multipoint touch sensing capabilities designed...
- This National Science Foundation Project Grant of $187,881 will support the development of tactile displays and related research at Chapman University from June 2022 through May 2024 under the Engineering (47.041) program. The university will integrate braille and graphics on a single platform using a small dynamic tactile grid. Researchers will characterize user acceptability of dynamic tactile systems calibrated for individual preferences. An initial 6x6 refreshable tactile grid adhering to...
- This $749,685 National Science Foundation project grant under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program (CFDA 47.084) will fund the development of an Automated, Integrated, Multimodal Software (AIMS) system to improve inclusive access to information for persons with disabilities. Saint Louis University leads a consortium that includes software companies Vital, Unar Labs, and Viewplus Technologies to build a unified framework for authoring, converting, and delivering accessible content...
- Summary Objective ED, Inc. received a $300,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Project Grant from the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), CFDA 93.433, awarded June 1, 2025, with completion by August 31, 2026. The primary deliverable is Financial Fitness Adventures (FFA), an accessible interactive fiction (AIF) computer-based learning system designed to improve financial literacy among visually impaired high school...
- This federal Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under the STEM Education (CFDA 47.076) program is funding the development and testing of software and hardware tools to enable faculty, staff, postdoctoral research fellows, and graduate students who are blind or have low vision to generate, identify, and manipulate digital data patterns and trends in the fields of chemistry, math, computer and information sciences. The $741,159 award to Newhaptics Corp and the...
- Independence Science LLC was awarded a $254,767 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation under the Engineering (47.041) federal grant program. The grant will fund the company's "Synergizing Braille and Science: Real-Time Accessibility of Tactile Graphics in Laboratory Settings for Blind and Low Vision (BLV) Students" project from January 1, 2022 to December 31, 2022. The project aims to develop technologies that will provide blind and low vision students hands-on access to...
- This Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Federal Grant Program (CFDA 47.070) provides $400,000 to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to investigate methods and systems that allow blind and low-vision (BLV) users to build customized, interactive multisensory data representations spanning text, audio, and tactile modalities. The goal is to empower BLV individuals to engage in data analysis as richly...
LOW-COST REFRESHABLE FULL-PAGE BRAILLE DISPLAY WITH HIGH RELIABILITY - PROJECT SUMMARY POLYK TECHNOLOGIES, LLC SBIR PHASE I AN ESTIMATED 314 MILLION PEOPLE LIVE WITH VISION IMPAIRMENT. NOWADAYS, MUCH INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE ARE OBTAINED BY READING FROM COMPUTERS, TABLETS, AND SMARTPHONES. REFRESHABLE BRAILLE DISPLAY IS BECOMING THE MAINSTREAM TOOL FOR THE BLIND TO ACCESS DIGITAL INFORMATION. IN THE REFRESHABLE BRAILLE DISPLAY, THE UP-AND-DOWN OF BRAILLE DOTS IS INDEPENDENTLY CONTROLLED BY SENDING ELECTRICAL SIGNALS TO THE ACTUATORS UNDERNEATH THE BRAILLE DOTS. EVEN AFTER MANY DECADES OF EFFORT, THERE ARE STILL TWO APPARENT LIMITATIONS FOR THE MARKET DOMINATED REFRESHABLE BRAILLE DISPLAYS: 1) THE COMMERCIAL REFRESHABLE BRAILLE DISPLAYS ARE STILL LIMITED TO A SINGLE TEXT LINE, WHICH CANNOT PROCESS GRAPHICS, MATHEMATIC DATA (TYPICALLY PRESENTED IN A COLUMNAR FORMAT, NOT HORIZONTAL FORMAT), OR LARGE AMOUNTS OF STRUCTURED AND DYNAMIC INFORMATION. 2) THESE BRAILLE DISPLAYS ARE BASED ON PIEZOCERAMIC ACTUATORS, WHICH ARE FRAGILE AND PONDEROUS. IN THIS PROJECT, WE WILL DEVELOP A FULL-PAGE BRAILLE DISPLAY SYSTEM. IT IS ENABLED BY THE TWO RECENT PATENTED INNOVATIONS, I.E., A NEW GENERATION HIGH PERFORMANCE ELECTROACTIVE POLYMER COMPOSITION WITH ULTRAHIGH ACTUATION STRAIN (DEVELOPED IN 2021) AND AN INNOVATIVE ACTUATOR DESIGN WHICH GREATLY REDUCES THE BRAILLE CELL SIZE BY 80% AND SIMPLIFIES THE ASSEMBLY OF A FULL-PAGE BRAILLE DISPLAY. THE PROJECT WILL BE CONDUCTED BY AN INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM CONSISTING OF MATERIAL SCIENTISTS, ELECTRICAL ENGINEER, BLIND ENTREPRENEUR, AND BRAILLE PRESS. THE PROPOSED FULL-PAGE BRAILLE DISPLAY SYSTEM WILL BE COMPACT (80% SIZE REDUCTION), LIGHTWEIGHT AND DURABLE (BASED ON PIEZOELECTRIC POLYMER ACTUATORS), AND LOW COST (CAN BE ROLL-TO-ROLL MANUFACTURED). IT WILL REVOLUTIONIZE THE WAY THE BLIND ACCESS INFORMATION, ESPECIALLY FOR GRAPHICS OR DYNAMIC DATABASE WHICH IS CURRENTLY INACCESSIBLE TO THEM. IT WILL GREATLY IMPROVE THE EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR BLIND PEOPLE (A GIANT LEAP FOR BLIND PEOPLE TO LEARN SUBJECTS LIKE MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE) AND ENHANCE THEIR LIFE QUALITY (WEB SURFING AND VIEWING ARTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS).
Mod # | Description | ReasonForModification | Federal Obligation | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Not listed | $0 | 3/1/24 | ||
| Not listed | $0 | 5/16/22 | ||
| Not listed | $0 | 5/16/22 | ||
| Not listed | $259.6k | 4/25/22 | ||
| Not listed | $259.6k | 4/25/22 |