How reading braille is both like and unlike reading print

Reading Braille and Tactile Ink-Print on a Planar Tactile Display

Reading characters by fingers depends on the tactile features of the medium in use. Braille displays were often found to be slower than Braille on paper. We study reading Braille on a novel planar tactile display by conducting three reading tests. A first study compares the reading speed on four different devices, namely paper, 40 cell Braille display and two varied conditions on the planar pin...

Reading Visual Braille with a Retinal Prosthesis

Retinal prostheses, which restore partial vision to patients blinded by outer retinal degeneration, are currently in clinical trial. The Argus II retinal prosthesis system was recently awarded CE approval for commercial use in Europe. While retinal prosthesis users have achieved remarkable visual improvement to the point of reading letters and short sentences, the reading process is still fairl...

Reading the metabolic fine print

Barely a decade has passed since the term metabolomics—the systemic analysis of the chemical ‘fingerprints’ of specific cellular processes—made its debut in the scientific literature (Oliver et al, 1998), but its application in medicine goes back to the Middle Ages, when doctors used to diagnose diseases by the colour and smell of the patient’s urine. However, modern-day metabolomics started in...

Reading the Fine Print: Evaluating Discrepancies in Print Reading Disability Statistics

In recent years, data from two national surveys have been used to generate estimates of the prevalence of visual impairment from a print reading disability measure: the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) of the National Center for Health Statistics, and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) of the Census Bureau. These estimates differ substantially. According to the 1991-92...

Computer Assisted Reading (CAR) versus Traditional Print Format in EFL Academic Reading Comprehension