The purpose of the research is to develop a full-page refreshable Braille display system for blind people. There are three parts in the research: mechanism design, design of driving circuit, and software design. Symbols, graphs or texts are converted to patterns or Braille by software. Then, the driving circuit receives the data by RS232 communication and actuates the electromagnets. Finally, blind people get graphs and Braille from full-page refreshable Braille display by touching the tactile rods.

In mechanism design, the electromagnets are used as the actuators. We propose a four-layer-overlapping structure in order to decrease the pitch of tactile display. Besides, the electromagnetic force is computed with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) by ANSOFT.

In design of driving circuit, row scan method is used in the control of full-page electromagnets. Furthermore, we use RS232 communication to receive the information from software.

        In software design, pattern module and Braille module are developed. The graphs can be converted into a dot-graph by pattern module. English and Chinese words are also transformed into Braille code by Braille module. The “regular expression” is applied in matching Braille rules. The English Braille rules, Chinese Braille rules are also built in the research. Finally, several modified methods are proposed to intensify the effect of Braille converting.