Background:
Many blind people, both children and adults are not eligible to access massive content available on the world like normal people due to those contents are needed to translate to braille language while the braille embosser is pricey and very difficult to them to afford.
Describe the Idea:
With the intention to make change happened to more than 285 blind people around the world by giving them the opportunity, quality and equality of living like normal people, Touchable Ink will give them the full ability to read by themselves in order to unlock their potential by just using with the ordinary printers they can afford. Turn the normal laser printer to be braille-embossed printer and make the blind people be able to print braille documents by themselves and read at home with no limitation. To make this happen, Touchable Ink, the world-first printing ink breakthrough invented for blind people is the game changer.
Description of the Innovation/Technology:
The major component of the touchable Ink are the laser printer and extra fine embossing powder as a toner. The key technique we are on progress developing is to reduce the size of the embossing powder’s particle to be as same as the toner which are 1/20 of hair dimension. The special additives will be added to catalyze the electric charge and increase the better raising effect as a result. Then, the ink itself will be fused with heat after printing process and created the raised surface similar to the raised embossing on paper made with pressure and an embossing tool. With this innovation, it will allow users to just simply replace the toner with Touchable Ink, print out and heat it. Currently, we are at the beginning of the developing process with 1st prototype stage to test for further adjustment.
Description of the Expectations/Outcome:
This is the beginning of the journey to create real and meaningful social impact in order to change lives of more than 285 visually impaired people around the world to be able to live life equally like ordinary people with the ability to read by themselves. This can be happened thanks to the affordable printer equipped by Touchable Ink. With this ability, we do believe that it will increase endless opportunity for them to learn the world and empower them to create the world on their own with their imagination.