India's Sumit Dagar invents world’s first smartphone for blind people

[mmadhankumar]

Blind people will soon be able to read SMSs and emails on their smartphones. Innovator Sumit Dagar, whose company is being incubated at the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) based on the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A ) campus, has developed the unique device.

Send this unique smartphone an SMS or email in any language and it converts it into blindfriendly braille. Dagar, who holds a postgraduate degree from the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, had always been passionate about making technology more usable. He is now collaborating with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi. "We have created the world's first braille smartphone," he said.

"This product is based on an innovative 'touch screen' which is capable of elevating and depressing the contents it receives to transform them into 'touchable' patterns." Dagar started the project three years ago while studying interaction designing at NID.

After working with a couple of companies, he gave up his job to concentrate on his technology, formed a team of six people and started his venture Kriyate Design Solutions. Currently, the venture is being funded by Rolex Awards under its Young Laureates Programme, where they select only five people from across the world every two years to fund their projects .

Braille SMART

The smartphone uses Shape Memory Alloy technology, which is based on the concept that metals remember their original shapes i.e expand and contract to its original shape after use This screen will be capable of elevating and depressing the contents to form patterns in braille The phone's 'screen' has a grid of pins, which will move up and down as per requirement.

The grid has a braille display, where pins come up to represent a character or letter



India's Sumit Dagar invents world’s first smartphone for blind people - The Economic Times

 

[tech_genie]

World's first smartphone for the blind, made in India

The world's first smartphone for blind people is here. Soon, they will be able to read SMSes and emails on this phone, which converts all text into Braille patterns.

"We have created the world's first Braille smartphone," says its innovator, Sumit Dagar, whose company is being incubated at the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship, located in IIM Ahmedabad campus. "This product is based on an innovative 'touch screen' which is capable of elevating and depressing the contents it receives to transform them into 'touchable' patterns," he says.

How it works

· The smartphone uses Shape Memory Alloy technology, based on the concept that metals remember their original shapes, i.e. expand and contract to its original shape after use.

· The phone's 'screen' has a grid of pins, which move up and down as per requirement. The grid has a Braille display, where pins come up to represent a character or letter.

· This screen will be capable of elevating and depressing the contents to form patterns in Braille.

· All other elements are like any other smartphone.

Source: World's first smartphone for the blind, made in India - Times Of India

 

[meetdilip]

Nice invention.