Similar to a project by the University of Colorado Boulder, Latvian 3D printer manufacturer Mass Portal has collaborated with the Global Startup Battle 2015 winner “Tactile Eyesight” to 3D print tactile books for blind children.
Currently 300 million people worldwide are visually impaired and 40 million of them are completely blind. So far it has been a very time consuming process to create tactile books featuring three-dimensional images. However, as 3D printing technology has become widely available, this process can be made much easier. The book first chosen by the team is the art detective book series “Missing Monkey” by Luīzes Pastores. The team recruited three students from the Erasmus+ project to create 3D models of Elīnas Braslinas illustrations using the 3D software SketchUp.
All generated tactile models will be used for further exploration at Strazdumuiža Residental Secondary School and Training Center for the blind and visually impaired, where they will be examined by children.
“Its difficult to create notion about never seen things and opportunities for these people are limited, but 3D printing can and will make their lives much easier. Its a real pleasure to be part of this process for everyone of us, enabling children and young people to integrate into society by showing them yet unseen and unfamiliar world wonders,” writes Mass Portal.
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