The Canute 360 Multi-line Braille E-reader

Braille Cells

• 1.2mm dot diameter.
• Dot profile a perfect dome.
• 2.5mm dot-to-dot within cells.
• 6.5mm cell-to-cell, from centre of dot one to centre of dot one.
• 15.5mm line-to-line, from centre of dot one to centre of dot one.
• Dots are hard plastic, like signage Braille, and therefore cannot be compressed like ordinary refreshable Braille.

Reading Area

• 40 cells per lines, 9 lines = 360 cells of Braille. This makes the reading area compatible with preformatted BRF and PEF pages with the standard 25--27 lines, which it splits into three sub pages.
• Reading surface a single plastic sheet with a paper-like feeling.
• Reading surface is a slot-board, rather than a pin-board as used in refreshable Braille displays, meaning two small 2mm by 8mm slots for every cell, as opposed to six 2mm dia holes for every cell.

Input and ports

• A total of buttons along the left-hand side;
• Besides the nine lines of Braille these buttons are marked between 1--9, acting as selection buttons which correspond with menu items on each line.
• Below the ninth line is a button marked '0'. In combination with the buttons above this allows for page selection by page number.
• Above the first line is a button marked 'h' for contextual help.
• Three large buttons --- Previous, Menu and Next --- below the ninth line.
• On the left-hand side of the unit:
• Two USB-A ports for loading books via a USB memory stick.
• One USB-B port for connecting to an external computer to act as a display (this functionality it still in development and will be released as an upgrade for all early purchasers of Canute 360).
• One SD card slot for storing the library of files and user settings.
• One 3.5mm audio-out jack (this is made available to allow for potential future upgrades).
• The power-in port, accepting standard laptop power supplies at 19V, on the right-hand side of the back of the unit. Base unit will be mains only in its initial iteration.

Physical Description

• 37cm x 19cm x 4cm (14.5" x 7.5" x 1.5"), 2.8KG (6lb).
• Aluminium surround, plastic reading surface.

Firmware and Software

• Open Sourced API via USB-B port or custom stand-alone software.
• Includes Raspberry Pi micro-computer running stand-alone software from a Linux operating system.
• Open Sourced stand-alone ebook reading software, written in Python, which provides compatibility with any BRF and PEF formatted files with 40 or less cells per line, and has basic ebook functionality.
• Updates ('reflashing') are instigated by loading a zip file via the SD or USB-A port.