An assistive electronic system for visually impaired users

Abstract

An assistive electronic system is disclosed for visually impaired users, comprising a Braille reader-writer 1 which may act as both a Braille teacher for the user and a Braille keyboard for a smart de

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The non-limiting and example embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the technical field of consumer electronics, and specifically to an assistive electronic system for visually impaired users. BACKGROUND This section introduces aspects that may facilitate a better understanding of the disclosure. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as explicit admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art. Visually impaired individuals often encounter numerous obstacles in their daily activities, particularly in areas such as learning Braille, using smart devices for character input, and playing games with gamepads. Each of these aspects presents specific challenges that require tailored solutions and greater societal awareness. Firstly, learning Braille can be a significant hurdle. Braille, a tactile writing approach used by people who are visually impaired, demands not only a sensitive touch but also a considerable memory capacity to remember the various combinations of raised dots that represent different letters and symbols. The challenge is more pronounced for those who lose their sight later in life, as they must adapt to a new way of 'reading' and 'writing'. Moreover, the dated Braille learning resources and the limited range of materials available in Braille can restrict access to information and educational content. This becomes even more difficult for study-at-home during pandemic period, or for third-world countries which have difficult accesses, low numbers, or even lack of visually impaired schools (currently 90% of global visually impaired people are living in third-world countries according to the WHO’s data). When it comes to using smart devices for character input, visually impaired individuals often struggle with standard keyboards and touchscreens. These interfaces are predominantly visual and not designed with the needs of the visually impaired in mind. Although voice recognition technology and tactile feedback mechanisms have improved, they are not universally available and can be error-prone or limited in functionality. Moreover, inputting characters via voice recognition technology may raise personal privacy concerns, for example, voice messages of visually impaired users will be easily heard by surrounding people in public. The lack of tactile cues on touchscreens makes it challenging to locate and identify keys or buttons, leading to increased time and effort for simple typing tasks. Regarding gaming with gamepads, visually impaired individuals also face significant challenges. Designed primarily for sighted users, these gamepads rely heavily on visual feedback, with buttons and joysticks positioned based on visual ergonomics. This design overlooks the needs of those who cannot rely on sight, making it difficult for visually impaired players to navigate the complex layout of buttons and controls. The lack of tactile cues means that identifying different buttons or functions often relies on memory and extensive practice, which can be particularly challenging for newcomers to gaming. Additionally, the shapes of the current gamepads make it difficult for visually impaired people to grasp and hold them. Therefore, visually impaired people may not engage in and enjoy this popular form of entertainment. SUMMARY To resolve or alleviate at least one of the above problems, the inventors of the present disclosure conceive of an assistive electronic system for visually impaired users. The assistive electronic system at least comprises a Braille reader-writer. The Braille reader-writer comprises: a keypad located on the front face of the Braille reader-writer and having at least Space, Backspace, Enter and six Braille dots buttons for a visually impaired user to input characters including Braille dot characters; a communication module for implementing a communication with a smart device to enable the user to input the characters to the smart device via the keypad; and a voice module, for issuing voice prompts to help the user input Braille dot characters correctly when the communication is not implemented. Hence, when a visually impaired user uses the Braille reader-writer alone, the user may learn the Braille with the help of only the voice prompts from the Braille reader-writer and without needing any special teacher. It is to be noted that, in the case where the communication exists between the Braille reader-writer and the smart device, the voice prompts from the Braille reader-writer may be not needed, since the smart device generally would have an inbuilt voice function (such as the VoiceOver function in an Apple device or the TalkBack function in an Android device) helping the user to input characters, e.g., prompting the user what character he / she has just input. In this case, the user may use the Braille reader-writer as a universal keyboard for the smart device to facilitate character input to the smart device. The assistive electronic system may further comprise a smart device adapter adapted to facilitate physical coupling of the smart device to the back face of the Braille reader-writer. With the physical coupling via the smart device adapter, the visually impaired user may operate the smart device and the Braille reader-writer together in a true portable way. The assistive electronic system may further comprise an arcuate gamepad sleeve adapted to wirelessly connect to the smart device and be physically attached to the front face and side faces of the Braille reader-writer while not hindering operation of the keypad by the user during the physical attachment. With the gamepad sleeve, the visually impaired user may enjoy the fun brought by the games while still being able to use the keypad of the Braille reader-writer. In sum, the assistive electronic system according to the present disclosure may assist the visually impaired people to not only learn Braille, input characters to the smart device, but also possibly engage in and enjoy the games, as equally joyful as sighted people, and enable gaming together with sighted people. Most importantly, it may eliminate the gaming boundary between visually impaired and sighted people. This is currently unseen and unintentional in visually impaired and sighted people gaming communities. Ultimately, it may lead the visually impaired people to a more equal right life as sighted people. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The above and other aspects, features, and benefits of the present disclosure will become more fully apparent from the following detailed description with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals or letters are used to designate like or equivalent elements. The drawings are illustrated to facilitate better understanding of the embodiments of the disclosure and are not necessarily drawn to scale, in which: Figure 1 is a schematic diagram showing an example Braille reader-writer according to embodiments of the present disclosure from all of its six faces; Figure 2 shows the 3D view of the example Braille reader-writer; Figure 3 shows the front face of the example Braille reader-writer when it is held by both hands during operation of the Braille reader-writer alone; Figure 4 shows the back face of the example Braille reader-writer when it is held by both hands during operation of the Braille reader-writer alone; Figure 5 shows the front of an example smart device adapter according to embodiments of the present disclosure; Figure 6 shows the back of the example smart device adapter; Figure 7 shows the physical coupling of the smart device to the back face of the example Braille reader-writer via the example smart device adapter; Figure 8 shows how to hold the smart device and the example Braille reader-writer by both hands during the physical coupling. Figure 9 shows an example gamepad sleeve according to embodiments of the present disclosure; Figure 10 shows the physical attachment of the gamepad sleeve to the Braille reader-writer coupled to the smart device; Figure 11 shows four possible positions of the buttons and joysticks of the gamepad sleeve implemented through the rotatable component of the gamepad sleeve; Figure 12 shows three different angles of the smart device formed through the rotatable component of the smart device adapter; Figure 13 shows how to hold the gamepad sleeve by both hands in the front view when the gamepad sleeve is physically attached to the Braille reader-writer coupled with the smart device; Figure 14 shows how to hold the gamepad sleeve by both hands in the back view when the gamepad sleeve is physically attached to the Braille reader-writer coupled with the smart device; Figure 15 shows how to hold the gamepad sleeve by both hands in the top view when the gamepad sleeve is physically attached to the Braille reader-writer coupled with the smart device. The slanted handles design (view from top) allows users’ thumbs accessing the gamepad buttons when the smart device placement is horizontal. DETAILED DESCRIPTION Embodiments herein will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings. The embodiments herein may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the appended claims. The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms "comprises" "comprising," "includes" and / or "including" when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and / or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and / or groups thereof. Also, use of ordinal terms such as “first,” “second,” “third,” etc., herein to modify an element does not by itself connote any priority, precedence, or order of one element over another or the temporal order in which acts of a method are performed, but are used merely as labels to distinguish one element having a certain name from another element having a same name (but for use of the ordinal term) to distinguish the elements. Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood. It will be further understood that terms used herein should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of this specification and the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. In the following, various embodiments of the assistive electronic system according to the present disclosure will be described in conjunction with an example assistive electronic system implemented with an example Braille reader-writer and further optionally with an example smart device adapter and an example gamepad sleeve according to the solution of the present disclosure. It will be understood that various specific features appearing in the example system are described in an illustrative sense only and are not intended to limit the present disclosure, in view of the following contents describing the example Braille reader-writer, the example smart device adapter and the example gamepad sleeve. I. Braille Reader-Writer Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the example Braille reader-writer 1, showing the example Braille reader-writer 1 from all of its six faces. The face provided with a keypad having several buttons in Figure 1 is the front face of the example Braille reader-writer. In particular, the keypad at least has a Space button 6, a Backspace button 4, an Enter button 3 and six Braille dots buttons, i.e., Braille dot 1 button 8, Braille dot 2 button 12, Braille dot 3 button 13, Braille dot 4 button 7, Braille dot 5 button 11 and Braille dot 6 button 14. These are the basic buttons of the keypad, and are used by the visually impaired user to input characters including Braille dot characters. In addition to the basic buttons, the keypad may further optionally have other buttons, depending on the particular requirements of the scenario where the solution of the present disclosure is applied. For example, in the example Braille reader-writer of Figure 1, the keypad also has a replay button 2 to repeat the played voice prompt, a volume up button 15 to increase the volume of the voice prompts, and a volume down button 16 to decrease the volume of the voice prompts. The example Braille reader-writer 1 also includes a communication module for implementing a communication with a smart device to enable the user to input the characters to the smart device via the keypad. Hence, when the user uses the Braille reader-writer having the communication with a smart device (e.g., a mobile phone), the user may use the Braille reader-writer as a universal keyboard for the smart device to facilitate character input to the smart device. The communication module is not shown in Figure 1, since it is disposed inside the Braille reader-writer. In addition, it may be understood that, the communication between the Braille reader-writer and the smart device may use a Bluetooth connection. The example Braille reader-writer 1 further includes a voice module, for issuing voice prompts to help the user input Braille dot characters correctly when a smart device communication is not implemented. The voice module may include a speaker 17 to play the voice prompts (as shown in Figure 1), a memory to store the voice prompts, and a circuit to fetch the voice prompts from the memory and control the speaker to play the voice prompts (the memory and the circuit are not shown in Figure 1). It may be understood that, the voice module may consist of other components to implement the function of issuing the voice prompts. The solution of the present disclosure has no restriction in this regard. Hence, when the user uses the Braille reader-writer alone, the user may learn the Braille with the help of only the voice prompts from the Braille reader-writer and without needing any special teacher. In an embodiment, the voice prompts include one or more of the following: - voice prompt teaching the user how to input Braille dot characters before the user inputs; - voice prompt reading pronunciation of the character represented by a Braille dot character after the user correctly inputs the Braille dot character; - voice prompt praising the user for correctly inputting a Braille dot character; - voice prompt indicating an input error caused by an incorrect input of a Braille dot character by the user; and - voice prompt encouraging the user after the user incorrectly inputs a Braille dot character. In an embodiment, the Braille reader-writer further comprises a refreshable Braille display, such as the refreshable Braille display 5 on e.g., the front face of the example Braille reader-writer shown in Figure 1. The refreshable Braille display may be a tactile device that consists of a series of small pins, arranged in 3 rows and 2 columns, where each pin represents a Braille dot. These pins can be raised or lowered electronically to form Braille characters in real-time, whereby the visually impaired user may can feel the raised pins with his / her fingers to better understand or confirm the Braille dot character inputted by the user. In an embodiment, the Braille reader-writer further includes a mode selection switch for selecting one of a Braille letters learning mode, a Braille number learning mode and the braille keyboard mode as the current working mode of the Braille reader-writer. For example, the example Braille reader-writer 1 of Figure 1 has a mode selection switch 18 on its right face shown on the far right of Figure 1. With the mode selection switch, the user may select one of a Braille letters learning mode, a Braille number learning mode and the braille keyboard mode as the current working mode of the Braille reader-writer. In the Braille letter learning mode, the Braille reader-writer may issue voice prompts for helping the user to learn how to input letters via the Braille dot buttons. In the Braille number learning mode, the Braille reader-writer may issue voice prompts for helping the user to learn how to input numbers via the Braille dot buttons. In the braille keyboard mode, the Braille reader-writer may have the communication with a smart device enabling the user to input the characters to the smart device, i.e., acting as a universal keyboard for the smart device. It can be understood that, the Braille reader-writer does not necessarily include the mode selection switch and may decide its current working mode based on its own discretion. For example, once the Braille reader-writer is turned on, the Braille reader-writer may automatically issue voice prompts for helping the user to learn how to input letters and numbers via the Braille dot buttons; once the Braille reader-writer detects that the communication between it and the smart device is established, the Braille reader-writer may stop issuing the voice prompts, and act as a universal keyboard for the smart device immediately. The solution of the present disclosure has no restriction on how the Braille reader-writer switches its working mode. In addition, as shown in Figure 1, the example Braille reader-writer 1 also include a power switch 19 on its left face shown in the middle of Figure 1. It can be understood that, although the example Braille reader-writer has a power switch, it is possible that a Braille reader-writer according to the present disclosure does not have a power switch, for example, the Braille reader-writer without a power switch may start to work once it is connected to a power source (e.g., a battery or a power outlet), and stop working once it is disconnected to the power source. The solution of the present disclosure has no restriction in this regard. It is noted that, the example Braille reader-writer 1 also has two male sliding tracks 9 on its left face and two male sliding tracks 10 on its right face. The sliding tracks 9 and 10 will be discussed in detail later. The bottom face and the top face of the example Braille reader-writer 1 are respectively shown below and above the front face of the example Braille reader-writer 1 in Figure 1. As illustrated, the bottom face of the example Braille is provided with a USB-C female connector 21 and a LED light 22. The USB-C female connector 21 may be used to receive a USB-C male connector from a power source to charge the Braille reader-writer, and the LED light 22 may be used to indicate the charging status. It can be understood that, the Braille reader-writer does not necessarily include the USB-C female connector and the LED light and may be powered just by a battery. The solution of the present disclosure has no restriction in this regard. The back face of the example Braille reader-writer 1 is shown on the far left of Figure 1. As illustrated, the back face of the example Braille reader-writer 1 is provided with a female locking groove 23 and two female sliding tracks 20, which will be discussed in detail in connection with a smart device adapter next. In addition, in order to give a more intuitive illustration of the example Braille reader-writer 1, Figure 2 shows the 3D view of the example Braille reader-writer 1, Figure 3 shows the front face of the example Braille reader-writer 1 when it is held by both hands during operation of the Braille reader-writer alone, and Figure 4 shows the back face of the example Braille reader-writer 1 when it is held by both hands during operation of the Braille reader-writer alone. II. Smart Device Adapter In an embodiment, the assistive electronic system further comprises a smart device adapter, which is adapted to facilitate physical coupling of the smart device to the back face of the Braille reader-writer. However, it can be understood that, the smart device adapter is just an optional device of the assistive electronic system, and the Braille reader-writer may be physically coupled to the smart device through its own structure or feature, without needing a smart device adapter. For example, a case for tightly wrapping the back of the smart device may be formed as a component of the Braille reader-writer on its back face, and the Braille reader-writer may be physically coupled to the smart device through that case, without needing a smart device adapter. The solution of the present disclosure has no restriction in this regard. In a further embodiment, the smart device adapter includes a body for tightly wrapping the back of the smart device, and includes a male locking tooth and one or more male sliding tracks on the back of the body; and the back face of the Braille reader-writer is provided with a female locking groove and one or more female sliding tracks corresponding to the male locking teeth and the one or more male sliding tracks respectively. The front and the back of an example smart device adapter 27 according to the above embodiments of the present disclosure are shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6 respectively. As illustrated in Figure 5, the example smart device adapter 27 includes a body 29 for tightly wrapping the back of the smart device 28 which is a mobile phone in this example. It can be understood that, the mobile phone is just an example of the smart device 28, and the smart device may be a tablet computer, a laptop computer or the like. The solution of the present disclosure has no restriction in this regard. As illustrated in Figure 6, the example smart device adapter 27 also includes a male locking tooth 32 and two male sliding tracks 33 on the back of the body 29. It can be also seen in Figure 6 that, the female locking groove 23 and the two female sliding tracks 20 (mentioned above with respect to Figure 1) on the back face of the Braille reader-writer are corresponding to the male locking teeth 32 and the two male sliding tracks 33 respectively. When the two male sliding tracks 33 slide in the two female sliding tracks 20 from the top to the bottom, finally making the male locking teeth 32 and the female locking groove 23 to tightly interlock with each other, the example smart device adapter 27 will be fixed to the example Braille reader-writer 1 and thus facilitate physical coupling of the smart device to the back face of the Braille reader-writer, if the body of the smart device adapter is wrapping the smart device. Figure 7 shows the physical coupling of the smart device to the back face of the example Braille reader-writer 1 via the example smart device adapter 27. Figure 8 shows how to hold the smart device and the example Braille reader-writer 1 by both hands during the physical coupling. It can be understood that, the female locking groove 23, the two female sliding tracks 20, the male locking teeth 32 and the two male sliding tracks 33 are just example components which may be used on the smart device adapter and the Braille reader-writer for facilitating the physical coupling. Other suitable components may be employed on the smart device adapter and the Braille reader-writer for facilitating the physical coupling. The solution of the present disclosure has no restriction in this regard. In a further embodiment, the back of the body of the smart device adapter further includes a rotatable component, and the male locking teeth and the one or more male sliding tracks are provided on the rotatable component. For example, the back of the body 29 of the example smart device adapter 27 further includes a rotatable component 31, and the male locking teeth 32 and the two male sliding tracks 33 are provided on the rotatable component 31, as shown in Figure 6. With the help of the rotatable component, the user may rotate the smart device to an angle where the user feels comfortable when operating the smart device and the Braille reader-writer during the physical coupling. It can be understood, the rotatable component is also an optional component, and the smart device adapter may still facilitate physical coupling of the smart device to the back face of the Braille reader-writer without the rotatable component. The solution of the present disclosure has no restriction in this regard. III. Gamepad Sleeve In an embodiment, the assistive electronic system further comprises an arcuate gamepad sleeve adapted to wirelessly connect to the smart device and be physically attached to the front face and side faces of the Braille reader-writer while not hindering operation of the keypad by the user during the physical attachment. During the physical attachment, the gamepad sleeve and the Braille reader-writer may together be coupled to the center of the back of the smart device via the smart device adapter, resulting a more secured, balanced and ergonomic grabbing even by single hand. This is because such design allows the grabbing force to go towards center of the smart device, thus to be applied and distributed more evenly to the overall mass, comparing to a typical attachable gamepad for the smart device that only relies on edge grabbing. This is especially important during long period usage since a single hand holding would unavoidably happen. When the gamepad sleeve is physically attached to the Braille reader-writer coupled to the smart device, the arcuate shape of the gamepad sleeve also allows the user to pick up them together easier from a flat surface e.g., a desktop, comparing to a typical attachable gamepad for the smart device which normally has a flat and thick form. It is noted that, the gamepad sleeve may wirelessly connect to the smart device in any one of various ways, e.g., via a wireless communication module inbuilt in the gamepad sleeve, or via the communication module of the Braille reader-writer if the communication module has the ability to implement a wireless communication with the smart device. The solution of the present disclosure has no restriction in this regard. In addition, when the gamepad sleeve is physically attached to the front face and side faces of the Braille reader-writer, the gamepad sleeve will not hinder operation of the keypad by the user during the physical attachment. In this way, the visually impaired user still can input characters to the smart device via the keypad of the Braille reader-writer, even during the physical attachment of the gamepad sleeve to the Braille reader-writer, which makes it possible for the user to input characters to a text input box on the interface of a game on the smart device when playing the game with the gamepad sleeve. It can be understood that, the gamepad sleeve is just an optional device of the assistive electronic system for assisting the user to play a game on the smart device. If the user is not interested in playing games, the gamepad sleeve of course may be omitted in the assistive electronic system. In a further embodiment, each side face of the Braille reader-writer has one or more male sliding tracks, the middle part of the gamepad sleeve has a cavity for receiving the Braille reader-writer, each inner side face of the cavity has one or more female sliding tracks corresponding to the one or more male sliding tracks, and the outer face of cavity has components allowing the user to operate the keypad during the physical attachment. An example gamepad sleeve 37 according to the above embodiments of the present disclosure is shown in Figure 9, which also illustrates the example Braille reader-writer 1. As can be seen from Figure 9, the Braille reader-writer 1 has two male sliding tracks 9 on its left face and two male sliding tracks 10 on its right face, as described above; the middle part of the gamepad sleeve 37 has a cavity for receiving the Braille reader-writer, one inner side face of the cavity has one female sliding track 43 corresponding to the male sliding tracks 9 and another side face of the cavity has another female sliding track 43 corresponding to the male sliding tracks 10. When the male sliding tracks 9 and 10 slide in the two female sliding tracks 43 from the top to the bottom, the gamepad sleeve 37 will be physically attached to the front face and side faces of the Braille reader-writer 1. It can be understood that, the male sliding tracks 9 and 10 and the two female sliding tracks 43 are just example components which may be used on the gamepad sleeve and the Braille reader-writer for facilitating the physical attachment. Other suitable components may be employed on the smart gamepad sleeve and the Braille reader-writer for facilitating the physical attachment. The solution of the present disclosure has no restriction in this regard. The physical attachment of the gamepad sleeve 37 to the Braille reader-writer 1 coupled to the smart device (which is a mobile phone in the example) is shown in Figure 10. It can also be seen from Figure 10 that, the outer face of cavity of the gamepad sleeve 37 has components allowing the user to operate the keypad during the physical attachment, such as three holes 45, 46 and 47 on the outer face of the cavity to expose the buttons 3, 2 and 4 (please see Figure 1) of the keypad respectively, and three pressable caps 48, 49 and 50 on the outer face of the cavity covering and touching the buttons 8, 12 and 13 (please see Figure 1) of the keypad respectively. The holes and the caps allow the user to press the corresponding buttons, thus to operate the keypad during the physical attachment. It can be understood that, the holes 45, 46 and 47 and the pressable caps 48, 49 and 50 are just example components for allowing the user to operate the keypad. Other suitable components may be employed on the outer face of the cavity of the gamepad sleeve for allowing the user to operate the keypad during the physical attachment. The solution of the present disclosure has no restriction in this regard. In a further embodiment, the front face of each grip of the gamepad sleeve is provided with a rotatable component on which the buttons and joysticks of the gamepad sleeve are disposed. For example, the front face of the left grip and the front face of the right grip of the example gamepad sleeve 37 are provided with a rotatable component 40 and a rotatable component 41 respectively, on which the buttons and joysticks of the gamepad sleeve 37 are disposed. With the help of the rotatable component, the user may rotate the buttons and joysticks to any position within the circle defined by the rotatable component where the user feels convenient to operate when playing a game on the smart device using the gamepad sleeve, as shown in Figure 11. Recall that the back of the body of the smart device adapter may also include a rotatable component 31, as described above. Figure 12 shows three different angles of the smart device (which is a mobile phone in the example) formed through the rotatable component 31 when the smart device is coupled to the Braille reader-writer via the smart device adapter, and the Braille reader-writer is further physically attached to the gamepad sleeve. With the gamepad sleeve, the visually impaired user may enjoy the fun brought by the games while still being able to use the keypad of the Braille reader-writer. Figure 13 shows how to hold the gamepad sleeve 37 by both hands in the front view when the gamepad sleeve is physically attached to the Braille reader-writer coupled with the smart device (which is a mobile phone in the example). Figure 14 shows how to hold the gamepad sleeve 37 by both hands in the back view when the gamepad sleeve is physically attached to the Braille reader-writer coupled with the smart device (which is a mobile phone in the example). Figure 15 shows how to hold the gamepad sleeve 37 by both hands in the top view when the gamepad sleeve is physically attached to the Braille reader-writer coupled with the smart device (which is a mobile phone in the example), wherein even though the smart device is rotated to a landscape position, the user's thumbs are still feel comfortable to operate the buttons and the joysticks, because the slanted design of the rotatable components allows such operation. This is really convenient for the user and no any existing gamepad on the market can achieve this. It is understood that components of the diagrams, and combinations of components in the diagrams, may be at least in part implemented by computer program instructions. These computer program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general-purpose computer, special-purpose computer, and / or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer and / or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions / acts specified in the diagrams. Furthermore, at least a part of the solution of the present disclosure may take the form of a computer program on a memory having computer-usable or computer-readable program code embodied in the medium for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system. In the context of this document, a memory may be any medium that may contain, store, or is adapted to communicate the program for use by or in connection with the instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The present disclosure may also provide a machine readable medium (not illustrated) having stored thereon instructions that when executed on an assistive electronic system cause the assistive electronic system to realize at least a part of the solution described with the above embodiments. While this specification contains many specific implementation details, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of any implementation or of what may be claimed, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments of particular implementations. Certain features that are described in this specification in the context of separate embodiments can also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment can also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination. Moreover, although features may be described above as acting in certain combinations and even initially claimed as such, one or more features from a claimed combination can in some cases be excised from the combination, and the claimed combination may be directed to a sub-combination or variation of a sub-combination. It will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that, as the technology advances, the inventive concept can be implemented in various ways. The above-described embodiments are given for describing rather than limiting the disclosure, and it is to be understood that modifications and variations may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure as those skilled in the art readily understand. Such modifications and variations are considered to be within the scope of the disclosure and the appended claims. The protection scope of the disclosure is defined by the accompanying claims.

Claims

1. An assistive electronic system for visually impaired users, comprising:a Braille reader-writer (1), the Braille reader-writer (1) comprising:a keypad located on the front face of the Braille reader-writer (1) and having at least Space (6), Backspace (4), Enter (3) and six Braille dots buttons (7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14) for a visually impaired user to input characters including Braille dot characters;a communication module for implementing a communication with a smart device (28) to enable the user to input the characters to the smart device (28) via the keypad; anda voice module, for issuing voice prompts to help the user input Braille dot characters correctly when the communication is not implemented.

2. The assistive electronic system of claim 1, wherein the voice prompts include one or more of the following:voice prompt teaching the user how to input Braille dot characters before the user inputs;voice prompt reading pronunciation of the character represented by a Braille dot character after the user correctly inputs the Braille dot character;voice prompt praising the user for correctly inputting a Braille dot character;voice prompt indicating an input error caused by an incorrect input of a Braille dot character by the user; andvoice prompt encouraging the user after the user incorrectly inputs a Braille dot character.

3. The assistive electronic system of claim 1, wherein the Braille reader-writer (1) further comprises a refreshable Braille display (5).

4. The assistive electronic system of claim 1, wherein the Braille reader-writer (1) further includes a mode selection switch (18) for selecting one of a Braille letter learning mode, a Braille number learning mode and the braille keyboard mode as the current working mode of the Braille reader-writer (1).

5. The assistive electronic system of claim 1, further comprising a smart device adapter (27) adapted to facilitate physical coupling of the smart device (28) to the back face of the Braille reader-writer (1).

6. The assistive electronic system of claim 5, wherein the smart device adapter (27) includes a body (29) for tightly wrapping the back of the smart device (28), and includes amale locking tooth (32) and one or more male sliding tracks (33) on the back of the body (29), andthe back face of the Braille reader-writer (1) is provided with a female locking groove (23) and one or more female sliding tracks (20) corresponding to the male locking teeth (32) and the one or more male sliding tracks (33) respectively.

7. The assistive electronic system of claim 6, wherein the back of the body (29) of the smart device adapter (27) further includes a rotatable component (31), and the male locking teeth (32) and the one or more male sliding tracks (33) are provided on the rotatable component (31).

8. The assistive electronic system of claim 1, further comprising an arcuate gamepad sleeve (37) adapted to wirelessly connect to the smart device (28) and be physically attached to the front face and side faces of the Braille reader-writer (1) while not hindering operation of the keypad by the user during the physical attachment.

9. The assistive electronic system of claim 8, wherein each side face of the Braille reader-writer (1) has one or more male sliding tracks (9, 10), the middle part of the gamepad sleeve has a cavity for receiving the Braille reader-writer (1), each inner side face of the cavity has one or more female sliding tracks (43) corresponding to the one or more male sliding tracks (9, 10), and the outer face of cavity has components (45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50) allowing the user to operate the keypad during the physical attachment.

10. The assistive electronic system of claim 8, wherein the front face of each grip of the gamepad sleeve (37) is provided with a rotatable component (40, 41) on which the buttons and joysticks of the gamepad sleeve (37) are disposed.

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