Apr. 29, 2015 | By Alec
We’ve already known for a while that 3D printers are perfect for making custom objects for the blind. Remember the father who 3D printed educational objects for his daughter? Now one Australian 3D printing fanatic known by the sensible Instructables username of liquidhandwash has made things a bit more complicated, by 3D printing one of the most complex mechanical toys a child can have: the rubik’s cube.
As mr. liquidhandwash explains, he designed this cool-looking cube for a friend. ‘I have a friend who lost his sight a few years ago, and it got me thinking about how much that must really suck. I use my eyes all the time, I don't know what I would do without them, he must miss out on so much. I sure would like to make his life easier somehow,’ he writes. ‘We were taking and for what every reason the subject of rubik's cube came up. Not only had he never seen one, when he did have his sight, but he didn't know what a rubiks cube is. You try and explain a rubik's cube to a blind man.’
So liquidhandwash set out to make a specific one for blind people, one that relies on the braille alphabet rather than on colors. ‘So he won’t have to miss out on all the frustration exasperation, annoyance, anger, vexation, irritation, bitterness, resentment; disappointment and discouragement that comes with trying to solve that infernal puzzle,’ liquidhandwash writes full of fraternal love.
Now as you can imagine, designing a rubik’s cube for a 3D printer can be a bit of an arduous, but liquidhandwash has found a clever way around it. Using a regular rubik’s cube and a set of 81 3D printed braille tiles (one for each square), it’s quite simple to reproduce. In fact, you can simply download all the stl files on Instructables here and 3D print every single tile.
The rest of the process is fairly simple. If your original cube is covered with colorful stickers, just use some alcohol to take them off and clean the surfaces. And instead of gluing each tile on individually, liquidhandwash advises sticking the tiles onto a set of double sized tape and cutting them in individual squares that are easily attached to the cube.
Now I’m not sure if it’s necessary to stick all the tiles on in a particular fashion, but liquidhandwash assembled the braille cube in a dice fashion, meaning that every two opposite sides add up to seven (so one opposite six dots, two opposite from five and so on). The hardest part, you’ll find, is getting all the tiles on straight. ‘When you first stick them one you can push the tile around a little to get it in the right position, but the glue on the tape will quickly set so best to carefully position tile straight as you can when you first drop them on the cube.’
And that’s really all there is to it – now even the blind can enjoy this challenging mathematical toy (provided they know braille). ‘My friend thought it was great that someone made something especially for him, but has he has never learned braille he found it difficult to identify the dots on each side. But after 10 minutes or so he began to get the hang of it,’ liquidhandwash says. It’s a fun little project that will truly make your blind friends and family very happy that made the effort, though cube fanatics will doubtlessly enjoy an unusual in their collection as well.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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Hi... I truly believe that I made the very first Braille Rubik's Cube. I made it for my classmate Joanne o shared a desk with back in 1982 during the seventh grade. Our principal came to me to tell me what a great idea and and his appreciation for Joanne's inclusion.
Bill C wrote at 4/30/2015 5:14:58 AM:
This isn't the first Rubik's Cube for the blind. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:9913 Nor is it a Printable Braille Rubik's cube, it is printable stickers to turn a rubik's cube into a Braille Rubik's Cube.
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