While we are all used to the benefits of modern technology in all aspects of life, from communication to entertainment and transport, the situation is very different for the 285 million blind and visually impaired people worldwide:

Only 3% of all digital text content is available in Braille, because material is expensive and translation requires human understanding, which makes it unprofitable in most cases. There is no alternative to Braille, especially when it comes to education: 90% of people who can’t read Braille are unemployed.

In 2016, Dot Incorporation set out to give the visually impaired access to mobile communication with the first Braille smartwatch. Now, we are creating access to content, with Dot Mini. The first smart media device for the visually impaired. It makes any digital context accessible through the innovative AI Dot Translation Engine based on Machine Learning.

All Dot devices feature Active Braille Displays with innovative (70 patents) Dot Technology, uniquely based on magnetism, which reduces size, weight, power consumption and price by up to ten times.

Dot Smartwatch is connected to the smartphone via Bluetooth and can receive any text information from any app or service, for a wide range of applications: From

Dot Mini can access digital text files from online libraries and websites, local and network storage.

Full audio support with speaker, headphones and microphone allow multisensory experiences like Karaoke and even watching movies with automatically generated text description.

Intuitive Control Elements including wheel, select and menu button and scroll buttons make interactive applications like calculation, editing and even games possible.

The Dot Translation Engine can automatically convert any digital text file into Grade 2 Braille.

Machine Learning depends largely on training. That’s why we strategically partner with big content platforms like Rakuten Kobo (global) and Yes24 (market leader in Japan) to use their huge content libraries (already more than 200,000 books), to continuously improve the Dot Translation Engine.