2012 4th International Conference on Computer Research and Development
IPCSIT vol.39 (2012) © (2012) IACSIT Press, Singapore
Braille’s Assistant Machine for Thai Language Learning
Jaturapith Krohkaew,1Suwarin Pattamavorakun2
Faculty of Science and Technology
RajamangalaUniversity of Technology, ThanyaburiKlong Six, Patoomthani, 12110 Thailand
1
kjatura@yahoo.com, 2suwarinp@yahoo.com
Abstract. The blind children in Thailand have a chance to study the same curriculum as ordinary students
by using blind’s tools which are paper-based document in Braille or wood-made item. These causes the
children catch up the lessons very slowly. The goal of this research is to provide the Braille assistant machine
for the starting Thai Braille learning persons. On the top panel of the machine box, there are 2 cells of 6 dots
cell which blind child can press for composing to be consonants, vowels and tone marks and to be words.
The machine box is c programming for controlling the keypad and the speaker and for interacting with the
user. Finite state machine technique for remembering the Thai Braille codes was used. The look up tables of
the Thai Braille codes are for comparing matching ASCII codes and searching sound files. The machine was
perfectly made and used at the BangkokBlindSchool.
Keywords: Braille; assistant machine; Thai language; learning; blind children; computer implemented
system; tool
1. Introduction
Thailand is situated in the middle of Southeast East Asia with and area of 513,115 sq. km. and with a
population of approximately 68 million. There are about 125,150 people with visual impairment [1], and the
disabled, who are part of the “third world” of Thai society, represent 1.85% of the total population which is
considered not less than 620,000 people. From the total 100% of all types of disability, visual is 14%. It was
reported that there are about 1,500 persons from 1,850,000 inBangkokThailand, officially registered as blind.
Many institutions, under the Thailand Association of the Blind and Ministry of Education in Thailand,
have tried to serve the blind various educational programmes in same level as general children. According to
that, the blind school children in Thailand have a chance to study the same curriculums as ordinary students.
But now there is lack of research or invention material for blind children to start learning Thai Braille.
Teachers teach Thai characters by using the blind’s tools which are paper-based document in Braille or
wood-made item.
Researchers find that there is some indication that the social model for disabilities has an impact on
national and international social policy. Many blind studies and researches have done at RatchasudaCollege,
Mahidol University of Thailand aiming to improve the quality of Thai Braille reading and writing and
reported that the blinds need to access computer technology for their individual life.
The research of Thongjerm fourteen years ago [2] reported towards the blind expressed themselves in
terms of self-conceptualization towards society. The blinds viewed that they must live in the society for life
thus to adapt themselves. Because education is important for all but Thai blind children in kindergarten can
obtain reading materials only with great difficulty. Realizing this, so the objective of this research is to
provide the blind children or newly blind persons learning Thai language in a convenient and faster way.
2. Some Services for Thai Blinds
2.1 Education Resources for the Thai Blind
Compulsory education in Thailand was introduced more than 50 years [3]. Special schools for blind
children exist since more than thirty years in Bangkok and big cites. Currently, there are five special schools
for the blind in Thailand. They operate under the jurisdiction of the Special Education Division, within the
Ministry of Education. Each school has its own library. The Caulfield Memorial Library which is the first
library and still the major source of library materials for the blind in Thailand. A blind American, Miss
Caulfield, established the first Thai school for the blind in 1939. Twenty years later the Ministry of
Education gave a recommendation that graduates of this school receive certificates upon graduation finally
accepting the fact that a blind person could be mentally capable.
Today there is the Caulfield Memorial Library for the Blind, which is a testimony of Miss Caulfield’s
vision that the blind be an integral part of society. However, the library namely less than 1,200 titles listed.
Other organizations, namely the Christian Foundation for the Blind and several government schools for the
blind have set up material resource production but they barely keep pace with the demand for texts for school
let alone consider embarking on the production and storage of books or tapes for the blind. Thailand does not
have a Braille library or Brailed materials considered an essential part of school or university library
collections.
2.2. IT Services for Thai Blind
There is the software translates Braille to normal text documents [4]. In order to bridge the
communication gap between blind and sighted people in reading paper-based documents, a group of students
at MaejoUniversity in Chiang Mai [4] developed software to translate Braille documents into normal
documents. It is called the Braille Document Translator and it was developed using the C programming
language. WanpayaThanpanit, the team leader, said that they hoped to give the blind and severely visually
impaired a broader view of the world, as well as to help sighted people. The software requires only an entrylevel scanner with at least 200-dots-per-inch capacity to scan Braille documents into digital form. The
program then makes calculations and analyzes the Braille alphabet to turn the characters into regular
alphabet characters.
Now, blind people able to have a computer to access the Internet at a much lower cost. To give an equal
opportunity to the disabled and improve their quality of life, researchers at Prince of Songkhla University [5]
developed a Braille notebook computer for the blind. Computer designed to allow the blind to use computers
and conveniently access the Internet. It has with the functions of input, processing and output functions.
Instead of being equipped with dozens of buttons, it has seven buttons called Braille cells to facilitate easy
typing. It is also a Braille-character system to enable users to easily read and check what they type. The
notebook’s keyboard works like the shorthand that makes it possible to write messages, using combinations
of these seven keys. Its size is therefore only one-third the normal notebook size. It is designed to output
through both an LCD monitor and Braille language to allow blind and sighted people to “see” the same
message.
Blind studies current research at Ratchasudacollege related to the needs of blind individuals includes
work on Thai Braille and on the development of computer access technology for blind people in Thailand.
Researchers aim to improve the quality of Thai Braille reading and writing among Thai blind people. The
research team [6] worked in a digital talking book named “DAISY” (Digital Audio-based Information
System). Researchers overcame the problem for Thai people to access computers in the Thai language. The
work was on the computer access solutions for Thai language through both Braille and speech outputs. The
researchers at RatchasudaCollege have stilled working on developing the program for translation Thai into
Braille. There are many academic services for the blind e.g. Braille contest, blind youth camp, funded for the
research projects related to the bling.
When take a closer look to the instruments in education for the blind, the accessibility to the tools or
services of the blind, it means that he or she must be a literate person. So this research produced the machine
for the starting Thai Braille learning persons.
3. Development of the Work
3.1. Thai Braille
B
Lan
nguage
Pattasuvvan [7] expllained that reeading and writing
w
Braillle Thai conssonants for tthe newly bllind or blindd
children, thhey must rem
member the basics consoonants for preventing reemember connfusing. Theey must firstt
remember only
o
26 chaaracters whiich are กขคงจชซดต
ตญนบปผฝ
ฝพฟนยรล
ลวสหอฮneextrememberr
two cells coonsonants off 16 charactters which arre ฃคตฆณ
ณฎฏฑฒณ
ณธภญศษฬ
ฬ. The writting style off
Thai Braillee is in this manner:
m
connsonants, vow
wels and ton
ne marks arre in the sam
me line as in
n English orr
reading Thaai Braille, thee blind lay thheir fingers on
o the bulgee dots and reaad from left to right as in
n the mixingg
words of Thhai languagee. So before the blind caan read or wrrite Braille character,
c
theey have to prrepare theirss
touching sennsor and rem
member all thhe determininng dot of eacch character and its posittion. The wriiting methodd
is to write thhe vowel rigght after conssonant. Thai Braille’s chaaracters are inn Fig. 1
Fig.1 : Thai
T Braille coonsonants, vowels and tonee marker.
3.2. The Developmen
D
nt of the In
nvention
1. The processor
p
is using
u
ARM99 SAMSUNG
GS3C2440A
A for processiing the instruuctions from the pressingg
buttons of the box. When
W
the miccrocontrollerr receives th
he signal whhich correspponds to thee code (of a
consonant or
o vowel or toone mark) thhe machine will
w provide its
i sound.
2. The switch
s
circuiits divided innto 2 parts, thhe input partt and the com
mmand part. The input bu
uttons of thee
box represeent the dots of Braille’s characters which
w
consisst of 1 or 2 cells (Fig.2)). The comm
mand buttonss
consist of Enter
E
button for represennting word, + button for adding charracter to worrd, – button for deletingg
character froom word, annd ↑ button for
fo deleting whole
w
word (Fig
(
2).
3. The researchers
r
u
used
the finiite state macchine techniq
que for the syystem remem
mbering the Thai Braillee
codes. A finnite-state maachine [8] is a mathematiical model ussed to designn computer pprogram and digital logicc
circuits. It is conceived as an abstracct machine thhat can be in
n one of a finnite number oof states. The machine iss
in only one state at a tim
me; the statee it is in at any
a given tim
me is called the
t current sstate. It can change
c
from
m
one state to another wheen initiated by
b a triggerinng event or condition
c
thiis is called trransition. Th
he flow chartt
of the workking program
m is shown in Fig.3.
The souund recordinng part consists of 2 partts (1) SD CA
ARD is a meemory for stooring the aud
dio sound off
the characteers and wordds (2) the inpput devices, itt is the micro
ophone whicch receive the human sou
und of wordss
and characteers that storeed in the systtem.
4. The amplifier
a
of the
t megaphoone is for am
mplifying the tone of the sound.
s
5. The power
p
supplyy part is for providing
p
thee electrical power
p
for thee system.
6. The software part
- The program (written with c++) has its main function that receiving the pressing input signal (from the
key buttons of the box) in the form of the ASII codes. The signal data (for every consonants, vowels, tone
marks and words) are stored in the memory of SD CARD in .wav or .mp3 format. When the blind presses the
key buttons, then the correspond character or word is retrieved for playing sound.
- The index file in.txt format (in SD CARD) is used for the system looking up the audio file (by using the
pressing code in the form of index).
1st cell 2nd cell
Megaphone or
Earphone Socket
Spell
Del word
Add char Del char
USB Socket
Fig.2 The layout of the in front of the machine box.
4. Result
4.1.An Experimental on Tactile Product
Since before the development, the researchers had the feasibility study at the Bangkok school for the
blind. The first phase, the researchers used the interview and observing methodology. The study of usually
using school Braille’s machine in the classroom, the method that the blind students lay their hands on the
slate and how they put fingers for touching on the raised dot, all of these are the linkage to the design of the
development of the Braille’s box.
4.2 The Braille’ Assistance Machine Product
The machine box has shown in Fig.4. And there was the practical implementation at the Bangkok Blind
School has shown in Fig. 5
5. Conclusion
The Braille’s assistant machine (which is the prototype box sizes 30/10/10 cm) for Thai language
learning is a light metal box, the user can use the home electricity. Since the Thai Braille characters are in a 6
dot cells and 1 or 2 cells for representing the 44 Thai consonants and 38 Thai vowels and tone marks. So
there are two parts of the key buttons on the face of the box. The first part is on the top panel of machine box,
which there are 2 cells of 6 dots cell which blind child can press for composing to be consonant, vowel and
tone mark and then composing consonants vowels and tone marks to be words.The contents of the steps of
learning Thai Braille consonant, vowel and tone mark and word are based on the school curriculum. The
machine box is using computer technology in writing C# programming and retrieving the voice data file for
controlling the keyboard and the speaker and for interacting with the user. The Thai words are from the
curriculum of The Bangkok Blind School under the Thai Ministry of Education. The system can be used as a
tool for the partial blind or totally blind children who want to learn Thai Braille language, it is for supporting
the teachers in classroom, and moreover, it could be very beneficial for the blind as a personalized practicing
tool. It is a computer technology invention application. The system can be applied in an area of education
institutions and necessary life-learning for the parent to teach blind children. Unlike the normally tools
(which are paper-based documents or wooden items) for the blind to learn Thai Braille Language, its
functions and features for providing a remarkable entertaining sound for the blind children, the system
maintains the features to teach Thai Braille language for the beginners in shorter time.
Start
press buttoon
Enter??
No
Yes
+?
No
-?
No
↑?
No
lookup
Yes
Y
del char
Yes
Y
store worrd
from
Play not
n found
Yes
Yes
Y
add char
C
Continu
No
foun
Yes
Play
No
Stop
Fig.3 : Flow
w chart of the working
w
progrram.
Fig.4 : The
T Layout off the Machine.
Fig.5
5 : The exxperiment aat the Bangkok Blindd
ScchoolThailannd
6. Referrences
[1] Nationaal Statistics Offfice, Thailandd, Office of thhe Prime Miniister. 2010. Nuumber and Peercentage of Population
P
Having Impairments,, Bangkok., Thailand.
[2] W. Thoongjerm. 20100. A Case Studdy of Studentss in the Schooll for the Blindd, Bangkok M
Metropolis. Theesis,
ChulaloongkornUniveersity, Bangkook, Thailand. 1997.
1
[3] Nationaal Statistics Offfice, Thailandd, Office of thhe Prime Miniister.The Repoort of the Houuschold Socio--Economic
Surveryy. 2008.
[4] Regionaal News. Softw
ware Translattes Braille to Normal
N
Text Documents.
D
2008.
http://w
www.apcdproject.org/publiccations/2008/nnewsletter.htm
ml
[5] T, Pichaaya. Computeer to Aid Peopple with Gye Difficulties.
D
News
N
of Ministtry of Sciencee and
Technoology.2004.htttp://www.mosst.go.th
[6] Foundaation for the Blind in Thailaand. Daisy the Media for Alll. 2010.
http://w
www.apcdproject.org/publiccations/2008/nnewsletter.htm
ml
[7] S. Pattssuvan. The Edducation for thhe Visually Im
mpaired, Facultty of Educatioon, Rachapathhsuandusit Un
niversity,
Bangkook, Thailand. 1983.
1
[8] S. Garddner, 2012. htttp://wn.wikipeedia.org/wkik//Finite-state_m
machine