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The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), a membership organisation of blind people in the US, has announced that it has demonstrated a prototype tactile book with a computerised Touch User Interface (TUI).
The demonstration of the TUI-based TouchBook was given at the NFB's national convention in Dallas, Texas held on 1-7 July 2006.
The book, which is entitled Touch the Earth, is reportedly the first Braille book combining MODIS Sensor imagery and science content from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) along with the TUI technology of Somatic Digital.
Through the use of TUI technology printed pages are able to directly connect to digital content and communication protocols. A signal is sent to a computer to execute the associated command when the print of tactile page is touched.
According to the NFB the demonstration book includes five Braille pages, four tactile map images created from NASA satellite imagery, and an additional tactile page, which acts as a remote control to access the associated digital content.
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