Pre-orders open for the Canute Console

A message from Bristol Braille Technology:

Thank you to all those who have attended the recent Computer Science Masterclasses. Following on from these and the various events where we’ve trialled our newest prototypes, we have a big announcement to make …

After four months of touring the prototypes, we are very excited to announce the release of our new product: The Canute Console

Available for pre-order on our website now! Early bird bonuses apply; only 30 pre-orders available!

The Console is a nine-line Braille workstation for professionals and students doing programming or viewing and manipulating data.

Here are some of the applications for the Console:

  • Programming and word processing
  • Top down map exploration of cities
  • Football and sports playback on tactile pitches
  • Snake, Rogue-likes and other classic videogames
  • Spreadsheets and tables
  • Flow diagrams, charts and graphs
  • Free drawing ASCII graphics

It is composed of a Canute 360 Braille display docked in a workstation that adds a pull-out QWERTY keyboard, a fold-up 13″ high contrast monitor, and runs off a Raspberry Pi 400 from the Linux command line.

Read the full list of features and uses on the BBT website.

Reserve your pre-order with a 50% down-payment on the early bird discounted price via our online shop or by calling +44(0)117 325 3022:

Early Bird Bonus includes: discounted price, carry case, supporter status, and three hours of guided co-development with the BBT team for students/professionals getting started with building multiline Braille and tactile graphics applications. Units can be shipped anywhere in the world.

The down payment can be paid by Paypal, card, wire or in installments. Payment accepted in any currency (subject to conversion*). Deliveries expected to start from the end of April 2023 on a first come, first served basis.

Braille is literacy, employment and independence … it can also inspire us to do more, learn more, and most of all, to make more. We’re really excited to finally release the Console after over a year’s development. It’s involved hundreds of miles travelled by planes, trains and automobiles, and great creative sessions with blind, deafblind and low vision Braille readers.

By pre-ordering you are supporting a business that has always been a not-for-profit, dedicating everything to creating devices with and for the blind community.

The Braillists has played a central role in the development of the Canute from 2013 onwards. We can all agree that what the world needs is more braille. The Console is our way of adding that bit more Braille, in this case adding literally another dimension to programming and visualisation to Braille in computing.

Thank you to everyone in the Braillists community who has given us their feedback along the way; we hope and trust that the Console does it justice.

Thank you

Ed and the Bristol Braille team

P.S. Make sure the Canute Console is for you before placing the pre-order; we and our community of Braillist testers have been careful to design a brilliant machine for a particular audience of people interested in computer science and data visualisations. Do you know your way around the command line, or are curious to learn? Then the Console is for you!

* Conversion rates will vary by bank or payment provider. Currently: 1GBP = 1.2USD, 1.13EUR, 1.74AUD, 1.62CAD, 100INR, 161JPY.