The design and manufacture of tactile maps using an inkjet process

The emerging technology of inkjet has been used for the manufacture of tactile maps and diagrams for people with visual impairments. A design methodology was proposed by which design improvements could be made to tactile maps and the inkjet system used to produce them. The design methodology centred on balancing the primary subsystems of printhead, ink and substrate, via a triumvirate visual design tool. This was used in conjunction with a design matrix for comparing system outputs and inputs. As no rigorous standards for assessing the quality of a tactile map exist, a set of measurable output variables was argued for based on psychophysical and cartographic studies of haptics. These were compared with the input variables affecting the inkjet subsystems; printheads, inks, substrates, print algorithms, curing and motion control of a special inkjet machine. The design methodology showed how the system and the output could be improved, and, in particular, the concept was shown that knowledge of the haptic design outputs could be used to aid efficiency saving of the machine inputs without adversely affecting the output.