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Comment by vunderba | Hacker News Reader

This is great, but boy I'm glad I took the time to actually read the article.

I assumed it was about someone who took a huge number of standard rectangular LEGO bricks with the 6/8 raised studs, then laboriously shaved them off to create all the necessary braille patterns, and used them on large LEGO boards to quickly assemble messages/notifications for blind readers.

Reality - it's about using lego to help "visualize" architecture.

EDIT: Apparently this already exists!

https://www.lego.com/en-us/product/play-with-braille-english...

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Your description reminds me of a blind guy I know who is interested in architecture, and began to collect scale models of famous building so he could feel them and experience their architecture. Eventually he took an interest in buildings that were less famous or didn't have high quality models, and started commissioning an artist to model them in CAD and 3D print them. Now he has a business producing and selling these tactics models.

https://evengrounds.com/about/

Oh no.

I'm a blind guy. I have a distinct interest in starships -- I have every Eaglemoss model, and many many more.

If I click this link I am totally going to get sucked into having people design and print me starships -- I need another project like I need another hole in my head.

I have always wondered how blind people "visualize" (I can't think of a better term) large scale objects.

I've no idea. But flipside, I know quite a few sighted people who can't walk around a rectangular block without losing track of which way north is. Or can't visualize that (say) their master bedroom closet backs up to their kitchen. Or other facepalm-worthy visualization failings.

> without losing track of which way north is.

I blame my childhood. Everyone always said the Pacific Ocean is to the west. So naturally the direction I went to go to the beach on the pacific ocean should be West. Especially when the north/south freeway crosses the street I take to the beach at a pretty good angle (well it's more like 45 degrees). Turns out I actually go south to go to the beach, the freeway is roughly parallel to the coast and north/south freeways sometimes travel due east/west and I have a real hard time with cardinal directions, and even if I understand where the directions are when outside, when I enter a building, especially if I go up stairs or an elevator, my sense of where the cardinal directions from inside the building is likely to be way off.

Thankfully, there's not a big impact from not knowing where room walls are relative to each other. :P

> Thankfully, there's not a big impact from not knowing where room walls are relative to...

Let me tell you about the friend-of-friend, who was cutting holes in his dining room wall to install [whatever], oblivious to the bathroom on the other side, and the water pipes for that bathroom...

Don't they make special anchors for mounting your TV on PVC sewer pipes? Should be fine. ;)

Similarly, I live in Seattle with hills everywhere, but the main path I used to go uphill was Southbound. But on maps, up is always North. I haven't recovered since!

I have never been able to use cardinal directions but I am very good at mental visualization and manipulation of 3d objects

If you live in the US (and possibly other countries) and are blind, you can probably get See3D to model things and print them for you for free.

http://see3d.org/

This is super cool. Apparently he also creates tactile topographical maps with various landmarks, terrain, etc.

https://evengrounds.com/3d-tactile-maps

I'm not at all confident in my ability to take an unknown object, run my hands over it, manipulate it, and even get close to being able to describing / recreating it though it does sound like this has the makings of a fun Cranium board mini-game.

The "lego for architecture" already exists too, though it was branded and then spun off as a separate company.

https://brickipedia.fandom.com/wiki/Modulex

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