Today we bring you an interesting new watch project seeking funding via Kickstarter.com. The concept is called “Haptika” and its a modern take on the Braille watch, no port-hole crystals or noisy talking watches required. Kickstarter.com is a site where ideas can be funded by audiences of the site, its sort of crowd sourced venture capital. In exchange or a donation of $5 or more, you can be part of the project to bring the Haptika watch into reality. The Haptika is a modern looking watch with a horizontal path for swiping ones finger across a membrane that imprints the current time in a four cell structure. A blind user would read 0-8-3-5 for 8:35am. It seems like a great idea and a pledge of $250 or more will get you your very own Haptika watch, a t-shirt and a braille wrist band. They are looking to raise $150,000 total and have 9 days left to hit their goal and with over 33o total current backers the project seems to be gaining steam and its understandable given the cause that it supports. Follow this link to check out video explaining the idea and pledge if this is a project that deserves a place on someones wrist.
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Thomas
Interesting for lots of folks who would like to check the time during a meeting on the sly.
Styker
I think the design of the concept is stunning, and I’m toying with chipping in $250 just to reserve one. I think the secondary market of sighted collectors would be larger than the intended blind market.
Andrew Hoefener
I love it. The rendering looks fantastic and the aim is commendable. Unfortunately, it looks like this project is stalling. They require $150k to move forward and are $100k short with only 8 days remaining.
Bob
The problem with watches that you would touch like this is that they tend to pickup dirt, or in the case of the port-hole crystals the hands break or simply get worn down. I have a feeling that the membrane on this would suffer the same fate. Several people I know use the Tissot Silen-T watch, the sapphire touch crystal is near indestructible, and it actually works well in a business setting. It just disappoints me I that so many blind users put up with the talking watches, etc, when there have been better options for years now.
James Stacey
Looks like they fell short on their funding. They only made it to 56k.
Andrew Hoefener
Although the Kickstarter project failed, it looks like the guys behind the Haptica Braille watch are continuing their effort to raise funds through a new website. Keep tabs on their progress at: http://www.hapticatech.com/
Good luck, guys.