Smart designs are scarce enough to come by in the first place. However, smart design with dollops of conscientiousness are even rarer. In this regard, we have fortunately stumbled across the hand crafted Braille Rubik’s Cube from Emerald Models Inc, aimed at visually impaired people.
One of the basic connections of human senses to the outer entities is through the visual field. However for visually impaired people, this connection is lost to oblivion. But still by virtue of human mind power, they are able to feel and ‘experience’ those very same entities via other senses like touch, sound and smell. And, it is this oft ignored element of ‘touch’ which is utilized by the creators to make the Braille Rubik’s Cube.
The design process entailed a pretty simple method of six different raised shapes (in the form of common geometric patterns like squares, circles and triangles, which can be easily comprehended by touch) being directly affixed to the color code of a conventional Rubik’s Cube. For example, the raised, 3D triangular shapes were fixed by a translucent adhesive to the green compartments, whereas the 3D square shapes were similarly fixed to the yellow compartments. These shapes were individually cut from a clear acrylic sheet by CNC machines.
Now, the project may be in a small scale, but its functionality has much larger implications. Just to put things into perspective, Rubik’s Cube is the world’s top-selling puzzle game , and is also widely considered to be the world’s best selling toy item. Hence, by just a spark of resourcefulness, the designers have opened the door of its brain tickling enjoyment for the visually impaired family members in many households across the world. This certainly alludes to collective commercialism, equally catering to all sections of the human society.
Price range: around $100
Via: CustomMade
