Seiichi Miyake is an inventor and he has invented one of the most useful things! The tactile paving!
For the visual impaired was a groundbreaking invention that helped them move around freely.
- Seiichi Miyake was born in 1926
- He died in 1982
- He was a Japanese inventor best known for his work called “tactile paving”
- Or “Tenji bricks”, “Tactile bricks/blocks”
- These brickes help the visually impaired at traffic crossings
- They were first introduced in a school for the blind in Okayama City in March 1967
- In the years since, Seiichi Miyake’s system has been adopted around the world
- In 1965, Seiichi Miyake used his money to create tactile bricks
- Which have patterns of raised shapes on their surfaces that can be detected by touch
- These patterns indicate different safety and hazard conditions
- Such as raised dots or blisters for “caution”
- Or long parallel strips for “safe to move ahead”
- Two years later, on March 18, 1967, Okayama City was the first place to install this invention for visually impaired people
- Ten years later the use of tactile bricks became mandatory in the Japan National Railway
- Thanks to its benefits and usability
- On March 18, 2019, Google Doodle honored him by showing an image of a person with a probing cane
- He is being moved over tactile bricks
- A system of tactile paving was first instituted at pedestrian crossings and other hazardous road situations by Japan
- The United Kingdom, Australia and the United States picked up the standard in the early 1990s
- Canada started incorporating them into transportation first in the 1990s
- And then added them to other aspects of the built environment in the early 2000s
- Today, yellow tactile paving is ubiquitous in Japan
- For aesthetic reasons, for example in front of hotels, the colour of the paving might be non-standard
- To match the colour of the pavement or stone floor
- Sometimes the paving contours are produced with steel stripes and dots
- Tactile tiles spread rapidly after their adoption by Japan National Railways
- In 1985, the system was formally named “Hazard Guide for the Vision Impaired”
- Its modern form can be classified into two types
- One has small, round bumps upon the surface of the block, which are felt through a sole
- And the second is a directional aid, with long, slender bumps being installed on the surface
- However, many types have been manufactured and installed as an experiment
- This has resulted in a situation which may be confusing for both the vision impaired and the elderly
- Usually the color of a tile is used to check the proper direction
- If the color is not the usual one, there may be confusion
- That led to the standardisation of the system throughout Japan
- Now, the use of tactile tiles is spreading throughout the world
- Many tactile tiles have been installed at subway stations and on sidewalks in Seoul, Korea
- Tactile tiles were adopted at each facility used for the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000
- And are ubiquitous in Australian public transport facilities
- That trend has also been apparent in the UK, the US, and throughout the world
