Braille generator and converter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10140887-B2
Application number	US-201514856860-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 17, 2015
Priority date	Sep 17, 2015
Publication date	Nov 27, 2018
Grant date	Nov 27, 2018

Abstract

Techniques described herein relate to generating braille output and/or visual display output based on received mathematical expression input. Data corresponding to one or more mathematical expressions may be received via expression input devices or visual display devices, and may be converted to braille output characters for display on refreshable braille devices. Additionally, mathematical expression input data may be received via refreshable braille display devices and converted to output characters for display on visual display devices. In some embodiments, mathematical expression input data may be converted first to content markup, and then converted from the content markup to presentation markup and/or braille output characters. Further mathematical expression input data, such as updates to previously displayed expressions, may be received from an initial input device, visual display device, or refreshable braille device, and the updated expression data may be converted to visual output characters and/or braille output characters.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A braille generator and converter system comprising:
one or more refreshable braille display devices, each refreshable braille display device comprising:
a plurality of electromechanical braille cells, each electromechanical braille cell comprising a plurality of output dots configured to raise and lower in response to voltages applied at the electromechanical braille cell;
a processing unit comprising one or more processors; and
memory coupled with and readable by the processing unit and storing therein a set of instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, causes the refreshable braille display device to:
receive data corresponding to one or more braille output math characters;
determine an electromechanical braille cell for displaying each of the braille output math characters; and
transmit control instructions to each of the determined electromechanical braille cells to display the one or more braille output math characters;

an expression input device, comprising:
an I/O subsystem configured to receive mathematical expression input data via one or more input devices integrated into or connected with the expression input device;
a processing unit comprising one or more processors; and
memory coupled with and readable by the processing unit and storing therein a set of instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, causes the expression input device to:
receive math input data via the I/O subsystem corresponding to a mathematical expression; and
transmit data representing the mathematical expression to an expression converter; and

the expression converter, the expression converter comprising:
a processing unit comprising one or more processors; and
memory coupled with and readable by the processing unit and storing therein a set of instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, causes the expression converter to:
initiate a multi-user interactive math computing session including at least one of the refreshable braille display devices and at least one visual presentation device;
receive the math input data from the expression input device representing presentation markup representation of a the mathematical expression during the multi-user interactive math computing session;
convert the math input data representing the presentation markup representation of the mathematical expression to a mathematical markup languge (MathML) representation of the mathematical expression, using a first set of data conversion rules for converting presentation markup of mathematical expressions to MathML;
convert the MathML representation of the mathematical expression to a set of braille output math characters, using a second set of data conversion rules for converting MathML to braille math output, wherein the set of braille math output characters includes at least one braille mathematical symbol that does not correspond to any character in the received input data or in the MathML representation of the mathematical expression;
transmit the set of braille output characters to the at least one of the refreshable braille display devices configured to receive braille output within the interactive computing session, wherein the converting and transmitting of the braille math output characters is performed in real-time in response to the receiving the math input data representing the presentation markup representation of the mathematical expression;
receive a plurality of single-character revisions to the mathematical expression during the multi-user interactive math computing session, including at least a first single-character revision received as braille math input from the at least one refreshable braille display device, and a second single-character revision received as presentation markup math input from the at least one visual presentation device; and
in response to each of the plurality of single-character revisions to the mathematical expression received during the multi-user interactive math computing session;
(a) determine an input data type of the received single-character revision to the mathematical expression;
(b) determine a set of conversion rules for converting the revised mathematical expression to MathML based on the determined input data type;
(c) convert the revised mathematical expression incorporating the single-character revision into revised MathML of the mathematical expression using the determined set of conversion rules;
(d) convert the revised MathML of the mathematical expression into one or more output math formats comprising at least one of the braille math output or presentation markup math output; and
(e) transmit the revised mathematical expression, converted into the one or more output math formats, to one or more output devices including at least one of the visual presentation devices or at least one refreshable braille display devices.

2. The braille generator and converter system of claim 1 , the memory of the expression converter storing therein further instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, causes the expression converter to:
receive a set of braille input characters from a first refreshable braille display device, the set of braille input characters representing an updated mathematical expression;
retrieve a third set of data conversion rules for converting braille input to MathML, and
convert the received braille input characters representing the updated mathematical expression to a MathML representation of the updated mathematical expression, using the third set of data conversion rules.

3. The braille generator and converter system of claim 2 , further comprising:
one or more visual presentation devices, each visual presentation device comprising:
a visual display screen configured to render representations of mathematical expressions;
a processing unit comprising one or more processors; and
memory coupled with and readable by the processing unit and storing therein a set of instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, causes the visual presentation device to:
receive data corresponding to presentation markup representations of mathematical expressions;
parse the received presentation markup representations of the mathematical expressions; and
render mathematical expressions corresponding to the received presentation markup representations on the visual display screen.

4. The braille generator and converter system of claim 3 , wherein receiving the input data by the expression input device comprises receiving input of a first set of characters via the I/O subsystem of the expression input device, and
wherein the presentation markup representation of the mathematical expression converted by the expression converter corresponds to a rendering of the mathematical expression including a second set of characters different from the first set of characters.

5. The braille generator and converter system of claim 1 , wherein the converting and transmitting of the braille output math characters to the at least one of the refreshable braille display devices is performed simultaneously with converting and transmitting of the presentation markup representation to the at least one visual presentation device.

6. The braille generator and converter system of claim 1 , the memory of the expression converter storing therein further instructions which, when executed by the processing unit, causes the expression converter to:
receive, from a first visual presentation device, first additional input data comprising a revision to the mathematical expression made via the first visual presentation device;
receive, from a first refreshable braille display device, second additional input comprising a revision to the mathematical expression made in braille v

Assignees

• Pearson Education Inc

Inventors

• Dooley Samuel Sean

Classifications

• A61F9/08

  Devices or methods enabling eye-patients to replace direct visual perception by another kind of perception · CPC title

• G09B21/003 Primary

  using tactile presentation of the information, e.g. Braille displays · CPC title

• G09B21/005 Primary

  Details of specially-adapted software to access information, e.g. to browse through hyperlinked information · CPC title