this post was submitted on 16 Oct 2023
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Cool stuff. Motivational even, to solve a complex issue like that.
I hope they go on to make affordable, refreshable braille devices and tank the price of those devices for 3k.
How long do these last / how reliable are they. I'd love to have a braille display, but since I can see fine $3k isn't worth it, but $100 I'd have one to play with. However if I was blind I might be willing to spend $3k if it is better (note that I am well off and can afford $3k if I really want to - most blind people are not well as well off as me)
If one for 100$ lasts you a year, then that's 30 years of one braille display a year. Do you believe the quality would not improve in 30 years?
If it lasts me a year, that is two days for a blind person. In just a few months the 3k.version is cheaper for them. I don't think quality will improve in a few months, more likely they go bankrupt from warranty claims (if open source develop a bad reputation and nobody uses it)
you = generic you, not "bluGill". But even so, do you seriously think these components will last you 2 days? That's just an argument in bad faith.
You said that it was last me one year. Since I'm not blind, only someone vaguely interested that would be two days - not for me, but for someone who is blind and thus needs to use this all day.
As for how long it will last? That is an open question. It has small moving plastic parts Making those last is a difficult engineering challenge, so while 2 days (for the blind) wouldn't surprise me, I'm not actually stating anything. Fortunately it is easy for them to test: build one, figure out how fast blind people read, and then throw project Gutenberg at it repeatedly for a while to see how long it lasts. Since it is so easy I'll just stick with how long it lasts is a real worry, but I expect someone to do some tests and tell everyone. Ideally it would be the creators as they can do a failure analysis and maybe fix problems.
If it lasts a blind person a year this is a good win.