Microsoft Developing Braille Tablets for Visually-Impaired

The Redmond, Wash.-based company said the technology would allow shapes to be felt with the fingertips, allowing the visually-impaired to use touch screen tablets to read and interact.

According to the patent report, Microsoft invented the "plastic cells" by spraying them on with a type of flexible polymer, which moves, bends, and shapes itself according to the type of UV light that reaches it, and the wavelengths it is surrounded by.

While Microsoft hasn't disclosed how far along it is in the development stage, the software giant is using the technology for larger tablets for greater field of hand-to-surface interaction.

Scientists Erez Kikin-Gil, in the patent filing, stated that the new technology is being developed for use in the company's coffee-table-sized tablet, known as Surface, and not for smaller phones or portable tablets.

Microsoft typically sells its Surface tablets to schools, corporations and the tech industry for nearly $5,000 each.