14 September 2015.
The South Korean tech company Dot has developed a Braille smartwatch for blind and visually impaired users.
The smartwatch uses bumps which rise up to display 4 characters at a time at a variety of speeds which can be changed depending on how quickly the user can read Braille.
The smartwatch connects to the user's smartphone using Bluetooth and can display whatever the user asks for when they make a voice command, from text messages to social media feeds.
The device costs 280 US dollars, much less than the large, PC-based alternatives that have been the only things available for blind people until now, which typically cost 10,000 US dollars.
The first 10,000 smartwatches will be sold in the US later this year.
There are around 285 million blind or visually impaired people worldwide, meaning there is plenty of demand for blind technologies, a relatively untapped market.
