Braille Clothing Clips for the Visually Impaired

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The Visually Impaired Clothing Organizer is a device that assists individuals with visual impairments to match, sort, and recognize various patterns and colors of clothing. These 3D-printed devices provide a permanent solution for visually impaired individuals to manage their clothes without outside assistance. Visually impaired people often struggle to find matching clothes or determine which pieces go well together. They may require the help of someone with sight to coordinate their outfits. However, the Visually Impaired Clothing Organizer eliminates this need by providing a customizable system for recognizing and organizing clothing items. These organizers can be attached to any piece of clothing using a simple mechanism that compresses two walls to open its lips, allowing a garment to be placed between them. The device then closes when the walls are decompressed. Each organizer features three braille labels on one side, representing general color, lightness or darkness, and pattern. The categories of color and design include: * Green: G * Blue: BL * Red: R * Black (Light Black = Gray): BK * Purple: PP * Pink: PK * Orange: O * Yellow: Y * Brown: BW * Khaki: KK * White: W Color Types: * Light: L * Dark: D Special Pattern Classifications: * Paisley: PA * Plaid: PL * Checkered: CH * Pin Stripe: PS * Awning (Larger) Stripe: LS * Solid: S * Polka Dot: PD Each category is followed by the braille code used to represent the color/pattern on the organizer. For example, a clothing clip might display "BW D LS" in braille, indicating that the garment is dark brown and has large stripes. The first generation of these organizers only included three labels on each device. However, it was soon realized that the clip would be useless if it couldn't stay attached to a piece of clothing while being washed. To solve this issue, the second generation of the organizer separated into two parts: the original clip and a small, flat cube (clothing tag) that can be sewn into the underside of a garment. On one side of the clip, the same three-part label was included. On the other side, another label with a single letter was added. This one-letter braille code is also on the clothing tag, allowing it to be matched with its corresponding clip based on their identical codes. The clothing tag can be sewn onto the underside of a garment easily, making it not noticeable while still allowing for easy matching. Several specimens of each generation of the Visually Impaired Clothing Organizer have been 3D printed with various labels and sizes. The devices were designed to be as small as possible while still having readable braille lettering. All clips can be printed in one piece and require no post-printing assembly besides sewing the corresponding tag onto a garment. The durability of the organizers has been tested by continually compressing multiple designs, and none have broken easily or deteriorated quickly from opening and closing thus far. One clothing tag was sewn onto the underside of a t-shirt and washed/dried several times to ensure it wouldn't deteriorate or break when cleaned. This project was conducted by Cameron Wolfe and Dr. Cem C. Tutum in the Computational Design Laboratory of the Freshman Research Initiative Program at the University of Texas at Austin, Department of Computer Science.