A group of university students in South Korea are developing a world first smartwatch that enables blind people to read messages from their smartphones.
Called Dot, the device — which looks like a cross between an Apple Watch and a Fitbit fitness tracker — makes use pins that rise and fall at customisable speeds using magnets to show four braille characters at any one time.
Until now, most blind people have had to rely on their smartphones reading out messages to them, which creators of the braille smartwatch say can be impersonal.
".... If you got a message on iOS from your girlfriend, for example, you had to listen to Siri read it to you in that voice," Dot co-founder and chief executive officer Eric Ju Yoon Kim told South Korean technology website Tech In Asia.
"Wouldn't you rather read it yourself and hear your girlfriend's voice saying it in your head?"
Development has yielded a battery life of 10 hours, Tech in Asia reports, which Dot's creators say will give average users five days between charges.
The device makes use of Bluetooth technology, which tethers it to a smartphone, allowing it to retrieve text from applications like iMessage.
Like other smartwatches it can also provide directions, set alarms and tell the time. Unlike other smartwatches, it can be used as an e-reader for consuming longer messages, articles and even novels.
The product goes on sale later this year (in the US first), where it will have about 10,000 smartwatches retailing for less than $US300.
The start-up is well funded too. Tech in Asia reports it has so far raised $US100,000 from the ActnerLab accelerator and an additional $500,000 from the South Korean government's Tech Incubator Program for Startup.
It hopes to raise another $US1 million soon.
