Kymera werables are designed from the ground up to be affordable assistive technology devices with a focus on durability, upgradability, and user-extensibility. To this end the Kymera wearables are developed as open-source hardware, with the idea that the source provided can be used to build an ecosystem of extensible assistive technology wearables.
These werables use Haptic Braille to provide users constant access to information without the need to view a screen.
This is the main repository for the Kymera wearables, which functions as a starting point for newcomers and central area for issue tracking. For source code, or to place a pull request, please check out one of the related repositories:
- Core library @kymera/core
- Simulator app @kymera/simulator
Minimum Hardware Features:
- 3 haptic feedback vibrators or actuators; required for Haptic Braille
- 3 hardware buttons
Preferred Features:
- 8 haptic feedback vibrators or actuators
- 3 hardware buttons
- For TTS support, an SBC with a minimum of 256MB of RAM is recommended
Supported SBCs: TBD
Haptic Braille is an inexpensive Braille character interface that utilizes a series of haptic points to form a Braille cell. This interface can be used to receive textual information without needing to look at a screen or listen for audible cues, and can be worn anywhere with sufficient nerve density.
Haptic Braille comes in three forms; Full-Cell, Split-Cell VI, and Split-Cell VC.
Full-cell Haptic Braille pulses each cell to an array of haptic feedback vibrators or actuators.
Split-cell Haptic Braille cuts each cell into two sections (left/right halves), reducing the minimum number of vibration sources to three. Cells are then rendered using one of two methods: varying intensity, or varying cadence.
The first half of a cell uses light pulses to mark empty dots, and regular pulses to mark filled dots. The second half of a cell uses regular intensity pulses to mark empty dots, and heavy pulses to mark filled dots.
Like the first method, light pulses mark empty dots, and stronger pulses mark filled dots. The pause duration between the first and second half of the cells are timed at 2/3 the pause duration between cells. Ex: If the pause between cells is set to 300ms, the pause between cell halves would then be 200ms.
Kymera wearables use Mimic for TTS capabilities due to its ease of use and relatively low system requirements. At the moment we're looking to find ways to synchronize speech synthesis and Braille output.
