Braille printing method and system thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12466207-B2
Application number	US-202217748065-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 19, 2022
Priority date	Nov 19, 2019
Publication date	Nov 11, 2025
Grant date	Nov 11, 2025

Abstract

Disclosed are a braille printing method and a system thereof. The system includes: an instruction control system ( 300 ) connected to a computer host and configured to receive a signal including a printing instruction and transmitted by the computer host and send a control instruction; a control panel ( 200 ) configured to transmit an operation instruction for implementing printing to the instruction control system; a paper feeding system ( 400 ) configured to receive the control instruction and feed paper for printing; a mechanical motion system ( 500 ) configured to control a printing system ( 600 ) to move in a two-dimensional plane and drive the paper feeding system in response to receiving the control instruction; and the printing system ( 600 ) configured to implement printing in response to receiving the control instruction.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A braille printing system, comprising:
an instruction control system ( 300 ) configured to receive a signal comprising a printing instruction, establish a database comprising a library of common Chinese character pronunciations, a library of polyphones and special words, a library of Chinese initials and Chinese finals, a library of numbers, a library of punctuations and a library of English letters, extract and isolate a text by using special symbols according to a corresponding setting scheme, convert the text into Pinyin according to the database, convert Pinyin, English, numbers and punctuations into braille respectively, convert the braille into a control instruction, and transmit the control instruction to a control panel ( 200 ), a paper feeding system ( 400 ), a mechanical motion system ( 500 ), and a printing system ( 600 ); the control panel ( 200 ) configured to transmit an operation instruction for implementing printing to the instruction control system ( 300 ); the paper feeding system ( 400 ) configured to receive the operation instruction and feed a paper for printing; the mechanical motion system ( 500 ) configured to receive the operation instruction, drive the paper feeding system ( 400 ) and control the printing system ( 600 ) to move in a two-dimensional plane; and the printing system ( 600 ) configured to receive the control instruction from the instruction control system ( 300 ), arrange a printing array of braille characters by dense arrangement or printing in alternate columns and rows according to a longitudinal projection size of at least one printing head, and perform braille printing for continuous braille cell printing and printing in alternate columns and rows respectively.

2 . The braille printing system according to claim 1 , wherein the control panel ( 200 ) is provided with a key configured to realize an on/off function and a pause/start function, a state indicator ( 203 ) configured to display a current state of a printer, and a voice prompt module ( 204 ) configured to perform voice broadcast.

3 . The braille printing system according to claim 1 , wherein the paper feeding system ( 400 ) comprises a paper slot ( 401 ), one end of the paper slot ( 401 ) is provided with a lifting plate ( 406 ), the paper slot ( 401 ) comprises an inlet side provided with a paper deflector ( 407 ) and an outlet side provided with a paper outlet ( 408 ), and a rubber wheel configured to guide motion of the paper is provided between the paper deflector ( 407 ) and the paper slot ( 401 ) and between the paper deflector ( 407 ) and the paper outlet ( 408 ), respectively.

4 . The braille printing system according to claim 1 , wherein the mechanical motion system ( 500 ) comprises an X-axis bracket guide rail ( 501 ) and a Y-axis bracket guide rail ( 503 ), the X-axis bracket guide rail ( 501 ) and the Y-axis bracket guide rail ( 503 ) are connected to respective motors to form two linear motion mechanisms, the printing system ( 600 ) is connected to and arranged on the Y-axis bracket guide rail ( 503 ), the printing system ( 600 ) is driven to move forward and backward in a two-dimensional plane by an X-axis motion, and the printing system ( 600 ) is driven to move left and right in the two-dimensional plane by a Y-axis motion.

5 . The braille printing system according to claim 1 , wherein the printing system ( 600 ) comprises a printing arm ( 601 ), a printing array ( 602 ), a printing head ( 603 ) and a printing bottom plate ( 604 ); the printing arm ( 601 ) comprises an end connected to a Y-axis linear motion mechanism of the mechanical motion system ( 500 ) and another end connected to the printing array ( 602 ), and the printing array comprises an area array ( 6021 ) and at least one single-dot array ( 6022 ); the printing area array ( 6021 ) comprises a plurality of printing heads ( 603 ) arranged in rows and columns, and each of the at least one single-dot array ( 6022 ) is connected to a respective printing head ( 603 ) of the plurality of printing heads ( 603 ); and the printing bottom plate ( 604 ) is placed on a printing bottom surface and configured to carry the paper for printing.

6 . A braille printing method, comprising:
S 1 : establishing a database comprising a library of common Chinese character pronunciations, a library of polyphones and special words, a library of Chinese initials and Chinese finals, a library of numbers, a library of punctuations and a library of English letters; extracting and isolating a text by using special symbols according to a corresponding setting scheme; converting the text into Pinyin according to the database; converting Pinyin, English, numbers and punctuations into braille respectively; and converting the braille into a control instruction; S 2 : receiving the control instruction in step S 1 , and arranging a printing array of braille characters by dense arrangement or printing in alternate columns and rows according to a longitudinal projection size of at least one printing head; S 3 : performing braille printing for continuous braille cell printing and printing in alternate columns and rows respectively; and S 4 : printing a pattern.

7 . The braille printing method according to claim 6 , wherein in S 1 , said extracting and isolating Pinyin, English, numbers and punctuations by using special symbols comprises:
S 1011 : extracting structures of pronunciation units each formed by a character or a term, and storing each of the extracted structures separately with [ ]; S 1012 : extracting structures of units each formed by successive Arabic numerals, and storing each of the extracted structures separately with [ ]; S 1013 : extracting structures of units each formed by English or a punctuation, wherein each letter of English is taken as an extraction unit; and storing each of the extracted structures separately with [ ]; and S 1014 : converting Chinese characters into Pinyin according to the library of common Chinese character pronunciations and the library of polyphones and special words, and storing each of the extracted structures separately with [ ].

8 . The braille printing method according to claim 6 , wherein in S 1 , said converting Pinyin, English, numbers and punctuations into braille comprises:
S 1021 : starting from a top left point of a braille cell, sequentially numbering six dot positions of the braille cell as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 in an order “from top to bottom and then from left to right”; and defining the braille cell as a two-dimensional matrix with three rows and two columns of [[0,1,0],[1,0,1]], where “1” and “0” indicate whether a dot exists at a respective dot position of the six dot positions; S 1022 : setting a number of cells displayed per row to realize typesetting; and S 1023 : mirroring each braille and each row of braille regarding left and right, since the braille is written from right to left during printing.

9 . The braille printing method according to claim 6 , wherein in S 3 , when printing in alternate rows and columns is adopted, a printing range formed by a printing region projected by the printing array, m columns adjacent to the printing region and n rows below the printing region is determined; a number of cells per row is defined as L, a size of the printing array is defined as M rows and N columns, and a number of rows printed on each paper is defined as K, then following relations are determined:

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Assignees

• Univ Xi An Jiaotong

Inventors

• Li Bing
• Gao Fei
• Wei Xiang
• Shang Zhongyu

Classifications

• B41M3/00

  Printing processes to produce particular kinds of printed work, e.g. patterns ({printing apparatus or machines of special type or for particular purposes B41F17/00;} special designs or pictures per se B44F; manufacturing printed circuits using printing techniques H05K3/12 {; manufacturing organic semiconductor devices using printing techniques H10K71/13}) · CPC title

• B41J3/32 Primary

  for printing in Braille or with keyboards specially adapted for use by blind or disabled persons · CPC title

• B41M3/16 Primary

  Braille printing (typewriters or selective printing mechanisms for Braille printing B41J3/32) · CPC title