The development of See_byTouch

Two forerunner models of SeebyTouch, called VTD (virtual tactile display), were developed in 2001/2002 as a diploma thesis at Kirchhoff Institute for Physics at the University of Heidelberg. They were tested by blind learners of the school for blind people in Ilvesheim. While the first version had a low resolution and a fixed construction of trackage, the second version provided a higher resolution and a more flexible guiding by parallel trusses. However, there was still a separate electronical unit necessary.
	Further development aimed at making the tactile vision substitution system more compact and easier to transport. This task could be realized by integrating the electronics into the device and by using trusses of aluminium. Using standard components keeps costs low. Thus SeebyTouch is affordable for users.
In order to copyright the idea of SeebyTouch, a patent for the tactile vision substitution system was filed at the German patent office on 12th May 2002 and registered as a petty patent on 5th December 2002.

Free release of See_byTouch

SeebyTouch was released as an open source project on 1st March 2004. Since then software and construction manual for assemblage of the tactile unit have been available free of charge for private users and for academic use. The project is solely financed by donations. Teamwork of testers and developers results in constant improvement.