Jamie Pauls
In the January 2018 issue of AccessWorld, I had the privilege of writing about the BrailleSense Polaris, a 32-cell notetaker from HIMS Inc. That unit ran the Android Lollipop 5.1.1 operating system. It contained 64GB of internal storage with 3GB of RAM. The unit promised 18 hours of battery life, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, a compass and gyroscope, and a 13-megapixel camera.
Earlier this year, HIMS released the BrailleSense 6, which doubles the performance of pretty much everything on the Polaris. Running Android 10, the BrailleSense 6 has the same 32-cell display with 64GB of storage and 6GB of RAM. All the apps designed by HIMS have been tweaked, and a few new things have been added to sweeten the deal.
As with the BrailleSense Polaris, I recently had the chance to kick the tires on the BrailleSense 6. In the paragraphs that follow, I will compare many of my observations of the Polaris with those of the BrailleSense 6. I will also touch on some new experiences I had with the newer product that I did not have with its older sibling. Finally, we’ll talk about how you can get your hands on a BrailleSense 6 if you so desire, and I will give some overall thoughts on using a dedicated notetaker designed especially for the blind as opposed to a mainstream product such as an Android phone or tablet.
Something Old and Something New: Getting Acquainted with the BrailleSense 6
When I unboxed my demo unit, I was reminded of what I really like about the BrailleSense products. The device was sleek in my hand and very lightweight, coming in at 1.5 pounds. I especially like the case that comes with this unit. It was easy to place on the device and is textured so that I never felt as though I might drop the notetaker. The strap was very adjustable and felt comfortable to me the entire time I used the product. The ports on the device are USB-C, and a really nice touch is the addition of braille letters embossed directly on the body of the unit in strategic places. The braille letter P easily identifies the power port, and V identifies the video output port. On the left side of the unit, the braille letters H and M identify the 3.5mm headphone and microphone jacks respectively.
While I did not use the earbuds that came with the Polaris, I did check out those that came with the BrailleSense 6. They were surprisingly comfortable, and it was easy to determine which earbud was for the left and right ear. Although there were no tactile indications of this, the earbuds only fit comfortably in my ears one way, and a test of audio confirmed that they were placed in my ears properly. A control on the cord of the earbuds allowed me to talk to Google Assistant, much as Apple Airpods allow one to communicate with SIRI.
As with the Polaris, the BrailleSense 6 comes with a very comprehensive braille command summary reference book. My mild complaint with the command summary that came with the Polaris was that there were some odd braille formatting issues in the document. I found the same thing with the new command summary document, although I had no problems reading the documentation. I would like to see HIMS give the command summary book a bit of TLC, which would only improve an already pleasant experience for the user.
Another nice carry-over from earlier units is the inclusion of a three-position switch on the front of the unit that allows the user to lock the top panel of the unit, or all of the buttons including those on the front of the unit. Of course, the third position of the switch serves to unlock all functions of the unit. Another familiar three-position switch is the one that allows the buttons on the front of the unit to be used for controlling media functions, DAISY navigation in books that are marked up for that format, or the ability to use the buttons to control functions in various applications. I tended to leave this second switch in the position for playing audio using the five buttons located on the front of the unit. Again, this is the same as with the Polaris.
It didn’t take long for me to recall how much I enjoy the feel of braille as well as typing on the Perkins-style keyboard of the BrailleSense products. Also, the buttons used for advancing the braille display when reading are very quiet—something that anyone who reads braille while doing Internet broadcasting or recording voice-overs might want to consider when trying to decide what braille display to use for their work.
Also familiar are the nine Perkins-style braille entry keys, the four function keys that perform many BrailleSense tasks in conjunction with other keys, as well as the alt and Control keys on either side of the Spacebar that can be used in certain applications. I never had a reason to use these last two keys during my evaluation of the BrailleSense 6.
When I looked at the BrailleSense Polaris, I found that the case made it difficult to use the volume buttons on the left side of the unit—so much so, in fact, that I actually thought the unit was defective. I had no problems manipulating the volume controls on the BrailleSense 6 as it rested in its case.
The BrailleSense Vocalizer voices are familiar enough, and I never bothered to change from the Samantha voice that was set up when I received my demo unit.
One very welcome addition to the BraileSense 6 is the ability to easily work with documents stored in Google Drive. Once set up, it was as easy for me to use Google Drive on the BrailleSense 6 as it is on my PC. I never even bothered to attempt using Dropbox on the BrailleSense 6, but used Google Drive exclusively to share documents. It was nice not to have to fiddle with an SD card on the device. Remember: ridge side up or you will put the card in wrong.
I found the HIMS YouTube channel to be an excellent way to learn how to use the BrailleSense 6. Any topic imaginable is probably up there, from setting up your Internet connection to using email. All demonstrations are done in real time rather than simply pasting in responses from the device being demonstrated. Earle Harrison and Jenny Axler are familiar voices to many, and their presence is quite reassuring when learning to use HIMS products.
The attention to consistency and detail is remarkable when using HIMS products. Space + D deletes content in a Word document, but it also closes apps when you are wanting to free up memory and make your device run faster, or shut down a troublesome app. You can set bookmarks in documents, while reading books, or listening to audio files. There are global hotkeys for doing most anything you want on the device. My favorite is F3 + I to jump right into Internet settings for getting your device online quickly. Those are just a couple examples among dozens that I could mention.
Once I signed into my Google account, Gmail and Google Calendar synced across all my devices including the BrailleSense 6. In my Polaris review, I stated that email was quite adequate but that I would probably default to using my phone or PC rather than email on any notetaker, and I still feel exactly the same way after reviewing the BrailleSense 6. Same with Internet browsing, although both tasks are quite doable on the BrailleSense 6, and I could use them in place of either a phone or PC if I needed to. It's nice to be able to quickly review upcoming appointments on the BrailleSense 6, and there are hotkeys for moving by day, week, month, or year as well as the ability to go to a specific day in order to view appointments. That said, I would probably add appointments using my smartphone, and in fact that is how the calendar is demonstrated on the HIMS YouTube channel.
The BrailleSense 6 has both Word Processor and Notepad applications. The Word Processor handles .docx files, while the notepad handles .txt, .brf, and PDF files. It would be nice to have everything in one application, but it is easy enough to work with both apps. Between the two applications, any document format that one would typically require should be covered; not all compatible formats were mentioned above.
I have always been delighted with the robust media player found in HIMS products. A plethora of file formats can be played, playlists can be created, recordings can be made, and one can listen to FM radio stations using the cord from your earbuds as an antenna. BrailleSense 6 adds the ability to listen to Internet Radio stations as well. You can choose from a database of stations or add your own. One particularly clever feature of the media player is the ability to use cursor routing buttons to jump to various points in time in an audio file.
Netflix and YouTube work even better on the BrailleSense 6 than they did on the Polaris. HIMS brought a database program over from earlier products, and you can do pretty much anything imaginable with it. I listened to demos of the database program in action, but I didn’t personally play with it.
Another app that has been brought over from older devices is a Bible program. It is simple to use, and I was pleased to find that several translations of the Bible are available, including my current favorite, The New Living Translation. You will need to download the Bible program and install it, since it does not come preinstalled on the unit.
On the BrailleSense 6, you can now search, download, and read Bookshare titles with ease.
During the entire time I evaluated the BrailleSense 6, I never ran the battery down. In fact, I don’t recall ever seeing a low battery message at all. I was frankly delighted to observe that when the BrailleSense 6 is in standby mode, the battery barely drains at all. Even after not touching the unit for a day or so, the battery level was still in the high 90% range.
Although I downloaded the BrailleSense 6 user guide as a Word document, I almost never used anything but the onboard User Guide found on the BrailleSense 6 itself. It is the same User Guide that anyone can download from the Web. Topics are easy to locate, and the guide is well written. In conjunction with the HIMS YouTube channel, it should be no problem for most people to learn to use the product fairly easily.
I never bothered to connect the BrailleSense Polaris to my PC or iPhone, but I did both with the BrailleSense 6. I downloaded the drivers for JAWS, although I had to contact tech support to ensure that I was getting the right ones. Although JAWS recognized the unit the first time I connected it, I couldn’t get JAWS or NVDA to recognize the unit on subsequent attempts. I didn'tt go to great lengths to troubleshoot this problem, since I used another braille display on my PC while using the BrailleSense 6. My experience connecting the BrailleSense 6 with my iPhone was painless and worked wonderfully the entire time I used the unit.
The only other mild issue I had was when I changed the panning buttons on one side of the device to move by paragraph while keeping the other side set to move by display length. I got the paragraph setting to stick initially, but I found that my display reverted back to moving by the length of the display rather than moving by paragraph.
My Overall Impressions of the BrailleSense 6
The BrailleSense 6 from HIMS is a portable, powerful notetaker with a well-designed user interface. HIMS has opted to create a robust suite of programs for many tasks including browsing the Web, although third-party Android apps can also be run on the device. I enjoyed writing and editing documents, streaming content from the Internet and playing audio downloaded to the BrailleSense 6, and using the product with my iPhone. The battery life was impressive, the unit was quiet, and the braillewas crisp and clean under my fingers. This would not be the braille display I would keep tethered to my computer. Besides the issues I mentioned above regarding connecting the unit with JAWS and NVDA, it's just too portable to leave at home.
At $5,795, the price of the BrailleSense 6 is its biggest drawback. Today, so-called smart braille displays can easily connect to iPhones and PCs while providing some bare-bones functionality such as notetaking, calculator functions, etc. It's becoming more and more difficult to justify the steep price of devices such as the BrailleSense 6. If, however, a person really does want a powerful notetaker designed especially for blind people that doesn’t require any fiddling with other devices such as phones and computers, the BrailleSense 6 is a product you might well consider.
If you have a BrailleSense Polaris, you can upgrade to the BrailleSense 6 for $2,295. HIMS will take the braille display from your Polaris and put it into the case of a new BrailleSense 6.
I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the BrailleSense 6, and in this review I have just scratched the surface of what it can do. It would be worth your time to read my original Polaris article along with this one to get a better feel for my experiences with HIMS products.
Product Information and Resources
The BrailleSense 6 from HIMS Inc. can be purchased for $5,795, or upgraded from a Polaris for $2,295.
Check out the HIMS YouTube channel to learn how to use the product along with videos on other offerings from HIMS.
This article is made possible in part by generous funding from the James H. and Alice Teubert Charitable Trust, Huntington, West Virginia.
