1998President of Polymer Braille Inc. (PBI), Dr. Peichun Yang, was a student from Beijing, China studying for a Ph.D degree in Material Science and Engineering at North Carolina State University in 1992. He achieved his Ph.d degree in 1997 and worked as a postdoc in the microelectronic Lab on the campus. However, because of a big accident he lost his eye sight in 1998.

1999After getting out of the hospital, Peichun went to the Rehab Center for the Blind in Raleigh, North Carolina, where he learned to operate computers using screen reader software and read braille. It was here where Peichun first learned how useful Braille displays are for blind people in their work and study.

2000After learning Braille, Peichun looked to purchase a Braille display. However, all he could find were thousand-doller single-line displays based on 40 years old technology. This sparked the multi-year search for a solution to make a low cost full page Braille display.

2005 Peichun worked with scientists, researchers, and engineers around the world to find the best actuator technology for a new generation of Braille displays. And in 2003, he inveted a hydraulic and latching Braille cell design that was patented two year later; the patent "Electroactive Polymer Braille cell and display" was granted by the US patent office on April 19, 2005.

2006 In 2006, he began to work with Prof. Franzon in the ECE department of North Carolina State University on the new Braille display technology.

2008 In 2008, a three year grant from the Department of Education titled "Electronic Braille Reader" was awarded to the team at NC State to develop their novel Braille display based on electroactive PVDF polymer technology. The team included Prof. Franzon, Dr. Peichun Yang, Dr. David Winick, and Dr. Neil Di Spigna.

2009 In June of 2009, Polymer Braille Inc. was officially incorporated in the state of North Carolina.

2010 Dr. Neil Di Spigna leaves PBI and Dr. Shep Pitts joins the team as a co-founder and is now the current CTO.

2011 - 2014 PBI was awarded the National Science Foundation (NSF) Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) phase I and phase II grants in 2011 and 2014. With this grant PBI worked on developing a novel actuation technology for low cost Braille cells.

Present After years of research and development, PBI is now closer than ever to manufacturing their first commercial Braille display products.