Johns Hopkins students' invention prints braille beer labels for local nonprofit

When the local nonprofit Blind Industries & Services of Maryland reached out to Johns Hopkins University's mechanical engineering program last year, they asked for one thing: a printer that adds braille writing to beer labels.

Students in the mechanical engineering program's senior design class delivered.

Starting in September, the students designed and built a machine capable of punching braille text into plastic beer labels as well as card stock, glossy mailers, and other materials that commercial braille-friendly printers are currently unable to accommodate.

Bonus: The students designed the printer so Blind Industries & Services of Maryland, or BISM, employees with no or low vision can operate it.

BISM is the state's largest employer of blind and low-visioned workers. With that in mind, the students developed an open hardware product that is easy to operate, unlike other printers that enclose their working components behind hard casing.

"You can reach your hand in and feel everything going on inside our printer. Having open hardware that allows people to touch all the components was important," said Catherine Pollard, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering and project team member.

"We really took into consideration who would be operating the machine and how they were going to use it," Pollard said. "With engineering, it can be easy to move forward with the first idea that works on paper or go with a design that uses the most cost-effective materials and call it a day. But that really wasn't an option here. For this to be a functional product, the user experience is paramount."

The students also developed easy-to-update software that allows their printer to communicate with the braille word processor and Photoshop design software that the nonprofit uses in its office.

"We were grateful to have BISM as a project sponsor. They gave us user feedback from the people who are most interested in the machine and worked closely with us every step of the way," said team member Gabriella Hu, a senior majoring in mechanical engineering. "Seeing how much adaptive technology BISM has already incorporated into their lives was inspiring, and it helped us understand how our product could slot into their day-to-day work."

The students have already printed 400 labels for Blind Spot, a honey Kölsch beer crafted by Baltimore's own Checkerspot Brewing Company in collaboration with BISM as part of an annual fundraiser for those with vision loss. The new printer will save BISM employees from having to use a manual press to punch braille dots into more than 1,000 labels for next year's festivities.

The students delivered the labels and the finished printer to BISM at the end of the spring semester.

Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University