You may also checkout the other branches: fchad-xlib and fchad-morse

This is the development version of the FCHAD driver for brltty.  To read more about FCHAD devices, scroll down.  To find the firmware for the arduino FCHAD see https://github.com/timthelion/FCHAD_firmware_arduino to see the diagrams for making the sheild to the arduino for building your own FCHAD device see https://github.com/timthelion/FCHAD_hardware


To INSTALL:
Download and extract the latest FCHAD suported tar.gz file from:

http://mielke.cc/brltty/download.html

$ wget http://mielke.cc/brltty/releases/brltty-4.4.tar.gz $
tar -xvvzf brltty-4.4.tar.gz

Cd to the Drivers directory of the brltty source:

$ cd brltty-4.4/Drivers/Braille/

Git clone the FCHAD sources, and change to xlib-morse:

$ git clone git://github.com/timthelion/FCHAD.git
$ cd FCHAD

$ cd ../../../

Add the line:

BRLTTY_BRAILLE_DRIVER([fc], [FCHAD])

to configure.ac along with the other lines of the same heading.

run autoconf

$ autoconf

run configure

$ ./configure

in arch:

Configure: On Arch-linux:
Most of the build depends are listed here: http://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/brltty/

$ cd ../../../
$ ./configure --prefix=/usr \
  --sysconfdir=/etc \
  --mandir=/usr/share/man \
  --localstatedir=/var \
  --with-screen-driver=a2 \
  --enable-gpm \
  --disable-java-bindings \
  --disable-ocaml-bindings \
  PYTHON=/usr/bin/python2

$ make

To run:

$ ./run-brltty -b fc -d /dev/ttyUSB0 -n -e

WHAT is an FCHAD?
An FCHAD is a Fast CHaricter braille Display.  That is, it's a braille display
that displays one charicter at a time, and can change which charicter it is
displaying sufficiently quicklyt to still be usefull.  That is, about 12-35
times a seccond.

The user then controls a cursor like device to move through the text and read.
That is, left hand on the FCHAD display, right hand on the mouse.

This is an experimental project in human computer interaction.  The results of
it, if any, will be free open source hardware/software for the blind/vision
impaired.

What parts make up the whole?
FCHAD: The arduino device that controlls 6-9 LED lights, motors, solenoids, ect.
Which are able to update which braille character they are displaying at faster
than 12 charicters per seccond.
CURSOR: The user controlled cursor, which selects which character will be
displayed by the FCHAD.
BRLTTY: The program which sends text from the computer to the FCHAD for display.

Up there, I gave as an example LED lights.  Why LED lights, if the users are
blind?  Most "blind" people are not blind.  They can at least see the direction
of light.  I hope to experiment, to see if 6 lights shone close to the eyes of
such individuals can lead to faster braille reading times than on a tactile
display.  Furthermore, many vision impaired people still have trouble reading.
People with movement dissorders may have perfectly good eye site, yet still
be unable to track well enough to read text on a page.