This 12 months, 14-year-old Yash Mehta flew to Previous Delhi, India to go to his grandfather, who helps run a college for the blind.
Throughout his go to, Mehta questioned why not one of the college students had entry to trendy digital braille readers. He was instructed that the majority braille readers value upwards of $3,000 (with some priced as excessive as $15,000).
As he reeled from the excessive value, a lightbulb went off in Mehta’s mind: He needed to make an digital braille reader that anybody might afford.
His unique objective? Make a mannequin that prices lower than $50.
Ultimately, he invented a small mannequin that value $20 and a bigger mannequin priced at $35.
In his challenge submission video for Society for Science — which hosts an annual STEM competitors referred to as the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Problem — Mehta confirmed off his invention and defined the significance of increasing entry to braille readers.
“That is essential, as a result of there are presently 36 million visually impaired people around the globe, and this quantity is projected to extend by 55% over the subsequent 30 years,” Mehta defined.
“Moreover, 89% of blind people dwell in low and medium earnings international locations, the place entry to braille could be very restricted.”
Citing a examine by the Nationwide Federation of the Blind, Mehta additionally identified that 1.3 million folks in america alone are severely visually impaired — and 31.2% of these folks dwell under the poverty line.
A scarcity of certified academics and a rising reliance on text-to-speech know-how has enormously lowered the inhabitants of people who can learn braille, however the price of braille readers is an added barrier that daunts training and adoption.
In actual fact, solely 10% of blind Individuals can learn braille.
“Decreasing the price of braille shows is vital to creating training extra accessible for everybody,” Mehta stated.
In his video, Mehta defined that braille “cells” encompass six dots organized in two columns and three rows, and each mixture of dots corresponds with letters, numbers, math symbols, and even musical notes.
Mehta went on to say that it’s not merely a matter of customers opting out of digital units to curtail prices as a result of books written in braille might be “six occasions” costlier than a typical e book, because of the specialised manufacturing course of concerned.
Conversely, digital braille readers benefit from reusability — however that preliminary value level continues to be a non-starter for many customers.
“Braille shows are costly as a result of they depend on piezoelectric crystals, which require complicated {hardware}, driving up prices and resulting in mechanical failures,” Mehta stated, displaying how he used available elements like motor drives and brush motors to optimize the price of his mannequin.
One other drawback Mehta needed to deal with was the dearth of accessibility in typical braille readers when it got here to people with decreased sensitivity of their arms and fingertips.
With this in thoughts, he fine-tuned his fashions with a potentiometer — a small instrument that might enable customers to extend the pace, vibration, and stress of their system.
After finalizing his invention, Mehta put it to the check towards 29 different finalists on the Thermo Fisher Scientific JIC in Washington, D.C. in late October — and emerged with a first-place know-how award.
Inspired by his win, Mehta hopes to patent his invention and make it even higher.
His present mannequin can translate pc textual content into braille letters, however he desires so as to add optical character recognition which might enable his invention to additionally translate printed textual content and handwritten notes.
“I might most likely return to the Blind Reduction Affiliation and get extra suggestions with my new prototype,” Mehta instructed Science Information Explores in early November, saying that his greatest asset has been group assist.
“I believe that’s crucial half — getting first-hand suggestions.”
Header picture by way of Kristina Tsvetanova, Slavi Slavev / BLITAB Expertise GmbH (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
