World’s First Smartphone for the blind people may read SMSs and Emails
Blind people in the country may soon able to read use Smartphone to read SMSs and Emails. An innovator Sumit Dagar design a unique Smartphone which is converts emails and SMSs in any language into blind friendly Braille.
“We have created the world’s first Braille smartphone,” Dagar 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.”
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.
Dagar, who is a post-graduate from the National Institute of Design (NID), says he was motivated to develop the device when he realized that so far, technology was only serving the mainstream and ignoring the marginalized. He is collaborating with IIT Delhi on making the prototype, which is currently being tested at L V Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad.
“The response during the test has been immense. It comes out as a companion more than a phone to the user. We plan to do more advanced versions of the phone in the future,” Dagar says.
On his website, Dagar also shows visitors a demo video of his product in development. The video, dated 2011 is from TED Fellows – “…I found myself frequently jumping corporate jobs and entrepreneurship efforts, mid-way through which I became a TED Fellow,” Dagar says.