A Tactile Display System Equipped with a Pointing Device — MIMIZU

A tactile display system equipped with a pointing device has been developed. The system, named MIMIZU, has a stylus pen and a body containing tactile display units. The stylus pen and the body are connected with three links and three angular sensors. Using the system, visually impaired users can draw and erase tactile images. It is effective not only for tactile drawing, but also as an interactive multimedia displaying method. If the user points to arbitrary positions over the tactile image, the system can feedback to the user a kind of tactile or acoustic reactions like vibrating pins, changing the tactile image, playing a sound, and so on. It means that MIMIZU has good possibility to give effective educational materials and enjoyable entertainment to visually impaired people.