LibreTactile creates open-source touch-based technologies that make it easier and more natural for people to interact with computers. We prioritize natural interaction, collaboration and connection for everyone.

As part of my Juan Nino](www.juannino.dev) PhD research, I'm developing assistive technology to help visually impaired people navigate the internet. A simple, affordable, and open-source tactile interface with a strong multidisciplinary community was not available in the market. So, we created our own open-source assistive technology and are creating a community it to help more people develop tactile interfaces for assistive technology, gaming, XR, VR, neuro-rehab, consumer electronics, and other fields. Libretactile is being founded to foster multidisciplinary collaboration and adoption of our assistive technology.

LibreTactile aims to serve as a platform that connects academics, developers, users, and enthusiasts of tactile technology across various fields. We strongly believe in the transformative potential, adaptability, innovation, and strength that diversity brings to communities. Therefore, we wholeheartedly invite individuals from diverse backgrounds, nationalities, and interests, including assistive technology, UX/rehabilitation research, consumer electronics, designers, arts, XR, and gaming, to both benefit from and actively contribute to our organization's mission.

We encourage (but do not enforce) the use of permissive licenses (such as MIT, FreeBSD, CERN-OHL-P, etc.) so that everyone can use, share, modify, buy, sell, and spread the fruits of the community.

You can learn more about our choice of license and the organization by reading the FAQ.

While each of our projects has its unique characteristics, we prioritize the following design considerations during their development:

1. Equitable, Creating technology that considers the diverse needs and perspectives of all people, especially those who are historically excluded. It involves collaborating with communities to understand their needs and incorporating their feedback into the technology design.
2. Open source, Anyone in the world can build, support, improve, and sell the hardware so it can mature over time.
3. Modular, simple and scalable designs that allow for different configurations to build more complex tactile human-computer interfaces.
4. Low-cost, to make it easier for everyone to access our tactile gadgets.
5. Easy to use for users, hobbyists, makers, technicians, clinicians, and researchers.
6. Easy to build with basic software or electronic skills, tools, and components.
7. Easy to modify, to facilitate the implementation of new ideas.

You can learn more about the research and development of our current and future projects in the R&D document.

🔥 Right now we are focused on open sourcing our technology, as well as creating a diverse and strong community of users, developers, practitioners and researchers around it. 🔥

✅Academic Research: Assembled a team of researchers to collaborate on the development of an assistive technology for visually impaired screen reader users.

✅Project Management: Successfully secured funding, allocated necessary resources, and obtained ethics approval to ensure smooth project execution.

✅Networking: Formed key partnerships with universities, research centers, and nonprofit community organizations to strengthen our research and development efforts.

✅Temporary Pause: Experienced a temporary pause in operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, prioritizing the health and safety of our team and participants.

✅Early R&D: Recruited visually impaired participants, conducted AT co-design and usability testing for the minimum viable product.

🔥Open Sourcing: Sharing our research results and MVP design files under an open-source license, promoting collaboration and knowledge exchange within the research community.

❗Community Engagement: Finalize the organization founding process, foster partnerships and cultivate a supportive community to collaboratively develop and test the beta version of our assistive technology.

⏹️Official Launch: Strategically incorporate marketing and outreach initiatives, identify distribution channels, and employ an agile iteration process for technology enhancements, derivatives, and ongoing research.

⏹️Scale: Expand the distribution and support of the Tomat Navigator, driving multidisciplinary innovation by venturing into the fields of rehabilitation, virtual reality, and gaming. Establish additional revenue models and forge new partnerships to propel growth.

⏹️Advocacy: Actively raising awareness of our mission, advocating for equitable policies that facilitate access to assistive technologies for all individuals in need.

Repository under construction. You can read more information about the project in my portfolio and the project presentation page of our partner the Inclusive Society.

“Touch Matrix Assistive Technology Navigator” (tomat navigator) is an affordable, open-source assistive technology that uses AI and tactile technologies to make it easier and more natural for visually impaired users to navigate the internet. It works as a companion device for screen readers, providing an interactive non-visual representation of a webpage through audio-tactile feedback. It was codesigned with and for visually impaired screen reader users.

Repository under construction.

"Wearable Sensations" is a tactile wearable interface based on the "Tomat Navigator." The wearable device lets you reposition the touch points to create custom sensory experiences for mobile and desktop platforms. The project is currently in its early stages of development with a specific focus on rehabilitation technology. We plan to make the design available for everyone to use and improve by making it open source.

The Tomat Navigator & Wearable Sensations build guide is currently in development. For more information you can send an email to libretactile@gmail.com.

If you need help building or modifying one of our projects, or if you would like to encourage the team or join our efforts, you can get check out the FAQ, and join in the discussion, or send an email to libretactile@gmail.com.

Don't forget to read the code of conduct to understand the kind of open and welcoming environment we promote.

Whether you're passionate about graphic design, software/hardware development, researching, writing, translating, testing, promoting, managing repositories, or if you have an interesting vision for one of our projects, we welcome your contributions. To get started follow the contributing guideliness. You can also show support for the project, through financial contributions by using our GitHub sponsor button.

If you are a researcher or developer with an interesting vision for one of our projects, you can request a beta prototype by filling this form. Please consider that we have to prioritize requests according to our limited resources.

Juan Nino MA - Ph.D. student at Laval University in Quebec.
Jocelyne Kiss Ph.D. - Associate Professor of Arts and Technologies.
Geoffreyjen Edwards - Professeur titulaire Faculté de foresterie, géographie et géomatique, Département des sciences géomatiques / Université Laval
Ernesto Morales PhD - Associate professor, Faculté de Médecine, Département de réadaptation / Université Laval
Walter Wittich Ph.D. FAAO CLVT - Associate Professor, School of Optometry
Frédérique Poncet ERG PhD Institutional Researcher, Lethbridge-Layton-Mackay Rehabilitation Centre (LLMRC)

The project that led to the founding of LibreTactile was made possible thanks to the collaboration of our partners.

Special thanks to the general open source community, which has poured years of effort into creating resources and tools to facilitate the development, licensing, distribution, and support of open-source software and hardware.

• The content and structure of our repositories follow the guides and resources of The Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA).
• Our hardware license was crafted by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
• Our code of conduct was adapted from the Contributor Covenant's code of conduct.

The documentation of this repository is released under MIT license (permissive).