[Cyberman tM]

Originally Posted by Ekaros

Dotmatrix printers had rather tiny area for the dotmatrix, it was just moved around a lot.

I realize that, I was just using it as an example.

Problem is that such reader would need to be either mechanical or use some other deforming technique. Neither one which scales in cost and size like LCDs or E-inks do.

True enough, but for mechanical it should at least be technically rather trivial.
It's going to be expensive either way.

Originally Posted by faltradl

You don't know what are you talking off.

Hence my starting with "Outing my ignorance here", to acknowledge I don't know much about the issue and am merely saying what's coming into my mind.

Look at "Refreshable braille display" in the wikipedia. You will see it isn' like a huge dot matrix printer.

I never claimed it is. I just said it could be.

And look at "Braille e-book". There you see how an ebookreader must look like.

MUST look like? Is there a (technical? legal?) requirement that all braille devices have to conform to a certain design? (Apart from the raised dots, obviously, since that is what makes braille braille.)
I'd think that those in need of a braile reader wouldn't mind even if it weighed 10 KG, if it meant they could read whatever they liked, instead of being forced to accept whatever crumbs of literature are made available to "them".

Anyway, I was just throwing in an idea and wondering aloud why this company was trying to create something completely new (albeit cool and very useful, not just for braille), instead of using last-century mechanics that is already established and well-known.

To re-iterate my thought and perhaps put it in better words: why not make the braille reader mechanical?
Yes, it'll be clunky and loud and probably prone to defects, but I don't see why it would be a technical problem to create such a device.
Instead of trying to invent the next-century tactile display, which though cool, probably costs more in development than production of a mechanical device.

[edit]Also, I don't think audio books or TTS could really replace Braille (or "normal" reading), unless you find a good way to speed it up and make it easier to navigate.