DOT TRANSLATE. THE FIRST BRAILLE TRANSLATOR BASED ON AI.

Short List
TitleDOT TRANSLATE. THE FIRST BRAILLE TRANSLATOR BASED ON AI.
BrandDOT INCORPORATION
Product/ServiceDOT TRANSLATE
Category A05. Health & Wellness Tech
Entrant SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Munich, GERMANY
Idea Creation SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Munich, GERMANY
Production PAULUS.CO Seoul, SOUTH KOREA
Additional Company CLOUDANDCO Seoul, SOUTH KOREA
Additional Company 2 HYPERINTERACTIVE Hamburg, GERMANY
Additional Company 3 MOBY DIGG Munich, GERMANY
Credits
Name Company Position
Alexander Schill SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Global Chief Creative Officer
Eric Ju Yoon Kim Dot Incorporation CEO
Jae Seong Joo Dot Incorporation CDO
Ki Sung Dot Incorporation CTO
Ahrum Choi Dot Incorporation Director of Social Impact
Jimin Ryu Dot Incorporation Global Partnership Manager
Yeong Kyu Yoo cloudandco / Dot Incorporation Creative Director / CEO
Ki Hwan Joo Dot Incorporation Designer
Franz Roeppischer SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Creative Director
Lorenz Langgartner SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Creative Director
Saurabh Kakade SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Creative Producer
Eduardo Alvarez SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Art Director
Carolina Soto SERVICEPLAN GERMANY Junior Copywriter
Dieter Pries HYPERINTERACTIVE Technical Director
Bozhidar Yovchev HYPERINTERACTIVE AI Director
Anton Petrov HYPERINTERACTIVE AI Engineer
Vasil Vasilev HYPERINTERACTIVE Data Analyst
Daniel Kuhnlein Standardabweichung Creative Code
Maximilian Heitsch Moby Digg Creative Direction
Niklas May Moby Digg Concept
Marco Kawan Moby Digg UI Design
Sebastian Haiss Moby Digg Animation
Kyungsin Kim Paulus Co. Ltd Producer
Dahoon Chung Paulus Co. Ltd Director
Yongsang Cho Paulus Co. Ltd DOP
Handong Ryu Paulus Co. Ltd Cinematographer
Young Woo Choi cloudandco Designer
Nara Ok cloudandco Graphic Designer
Julie Kang Serviceplan Korea CEO
Jihyun Seo Serviceplan Korea Art Director
Yujin Ko Serviceplan Korea Senior Account Manager
Yerim Kim Serviceplan Korea Account Executive
Yoon Seo Serviceplan Korea Copywriter

Background

While we are all used to having access to almost any content, the situation is very different for the 285 million blind and visually impaired people worldwide: Only 3% of all text content is available in braille, because translation is so complex that it requires input by human experts, which makes it not accessible for individuals and not profitable for publishers in most cases. There is no alternative to braille, especially when it comes to education: 90% of people who can’t read braille are unemployed. Braille translation is highly complex: Grade 2 Braille – the standard for longer text – relies heavily on contractions, which makes it 50% shorter. This inevitably leads to ambiguity, where exact meaning depends on context and up to five consecutive rules to be followed for a single word. So far, even the best existing software requires additional input by human experts.

Describe the creative idea

Dot Translate is the first braille translator based on AI. It can translate any digital text to braille on its own, at near-human accuracy. Because it’s being trained with millions of most accurate human translation samples / data to understand context. Dot Translate is accessible through an intuitive web interface, Dot devices and other digital braille devices. It can translate a wide range of formats and sources: type, e-pub, pdf, txt, doc, rtf, html and even voice. Through the bookmark feature, users can directly translate and format whole websites. Dot Translate can be integrated by third party services and products. But most importantly: While existing braille translation software costs up to $700, Dot Translate is free to use. This is important, because due to the nature of Machine Learning and a feedback tool, usage increases the accuracy.

Describe the strategy

Existing braille translation software works by applying a small set of pre-defined rules, which doesn’t cover many cases. Our approach is radically different: We use a machine learning based system. This takes a while to set up but can then reach an much higher accuracy than rule-based translators. The key to success was getting large amounts of training data as well as users. For the first, we partnered with strategically important stakeholders and content owners, for the second, we made our product free to use, while existing software costs up to $700.

Describe the execution

Dot Translate is the first braille translator based on AI. It can translate any digital text to braille on its own, at near-human accuracy. Because it’s being trained with millions of most accurate human translations. Braille translation is highly complex: Grade 2 Braille – the standard for longer text – relies heavily on contractions. This leads to ambiguity, where meaning depends on context and up to five consecutive rules for a single letter. So far, even the best existing software requires additional input by human experts. Existing braille translation software works by applying a small set of pre-defined rules, which doesn’t cover many cases. Dot Translate enhances rule-based translation with AI: Grade 2 Braille translation comes down to understanding the context of the word and finding the shortest accurate contraction.

List the results

Dot Translate reaches near-human accuracy, surpassing existing translators and continuously getting better. It can translate whole documents in a few seconds. Dot Translate has so far translated over 10 million words and is supported by organizations serving millions of blind and visually impaired people worldwide.