Mobile > Technology

DOT PAD. THE FIRST TACTILE GRAPHICS DISPLAY FOR MOBILE USE.

SERVICEPLAN, Munchen / DOT INCORPORATION / 2023

Awards:

Shortlisted Cannes Lions
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Overview

Credits

Overview

Background

While most people rely on visuals to understand complex topics, the 285 million blind and visually impaired people worldwide are left out. Tactile books are scarce, expensive, and impractical. Audio descriptions fail to describe complex information.

While it’s simple to find any information on the internet, it isn’t accessible to all. There is a digital divide which is growing and excluding visually impaired people from content, products, and services.

Describe the creative idea

Dot Pad. The first smart tactile graphics display for mobile use. It can display any visual content from any source because the innovative Dot Image Processing technology uses Al to analyze and understand visual input and present it most accurately on Dot Pad’s tactile display of 2,400 dots.

While conventional tactile devices use piezoelectricity to power their actuators, Dot Pad uniquely relies on electromagnetism, which reduces size, weight, power consumption and price by more than ten times.

Thanks to a partnership with Apple, Dot Pad integrates seamlessly with iOS and iPadOS, thereby giving users access to the 2.2 million apps on the App Store, out of the box. Dot Pad reduces dependence on tactile books and audio description for graphical content which sighted people are used to freely enjoying.

Describe the strategy

There are 285 million blind and visually impaired people worldwide who are excluded from a whole world of content. 84% of communication is visual. They have had to rely on expensive tactile books which just can’t keep up with the dynamic nature of content in today’s world. Dot Pad bridges the gap and makes graphical content accessible like never before.

By partnering with institutions and organizations for education, entertainment, marketing, and governance, Dot Inc. is making Dot Pad accessible to individuals. Starting with Apple, Dot Inc. is partnering with major tech players in the field to create a unified tactile graphic file format. The Dot Pad technology is even being shared with competitors to give visually impaired people all around the world access to tactile graphics. Dot Pad technology is permanently installed in public kiosks in Busan, South Korea.

Describe the execution

After inventing and patenting the most efficient actuator cell in 2014, Dot Inc. set out to digitalize text-to-Braille communication with Dot Watch and Dot Mini. The next natural step was to make graphics accessible. The innovative Dot Image Processor uses AI to accurately map tactile graphics. First launched as a tactile display in public kiosks in 2020, the portable version of Dot Pad was launched in 2022 through Tech Crunch U.S. and Japan.

Thanks to a partnership with Apple, users can access all the existing apps in the App Store in a tactile way. Dot Inc. is now partnering with institutions and organizations, both big and small to make sure the device reaches everyone in need. The Dot Pad technology is even being shared with competitors to give visually impaired people all around the world access to tactile graphics.

List the results

Launched in 2022, Dot Pad has earned huge interest from the media as well as public and private institutions worldwide, with millions in dollars in orders. The Dot Pad technology is even being shared with competitors to give visually impaired people all around the world access to tactile graphics. Dot Pad technology is permanently installed in public kiosks in South Korea.

The Dot Pad was awarded at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2023 for Best Product Innovation. Dot Pad has disrupted the field of accessibility technology with tactile graphics. To create further software and hardware support for tactile graphics, Dot Inc. is in touch with major players in the field to create a unified tactile graphic file format and a dedicated open database of tactile graphics. Dot Inc. is partnering with many educational and governmental institutions like UCLA, Carnegie Mellon University, McGill University, Columbia University, and American Publishing House for Blind.

Is there any cultural context that would help the jury understand how this work was perceived by people in the country where it ran?

There are 285 million blind and visually impaired people worldwide who are excluded from a whole world of content. 84% of communication is visual. They have had to rely on expensive tactile books which just can’t keep up with the dynamic nature of content in today’s world.

Conventional tactile devices use piezoelectricity to power their actuators, making them bulky and expensive. Further, translation of visual content into tactile one is complex. Conventional vectorization or edge detection algorithms aren’t capable of producing tactile graphics that are suitable for blind users. It requires intelligence to understand what’s in an image and decide what’s important to the audience.

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