IIM-A Incubated company creates World’s first smartphone for the blind

Sumit Dagar, a postgraduate degree from the National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, is collaborating with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi to come out with a unique device.

Now, soon blind people can read SMS and emails on their smartphones.  No matter what language you send the email or SMS to the person, the message will be converted into blind-friendly braille.  Sumit’s company is being incubated at the Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) based on the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM-A ) campus.

The company is using a very innovative 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.

Blind people in India do not have a lot of clout – financially or business-wise.  So it is good that organizations like IITs and IIMs are bridging the gap that commerce wouldn’t be able to.

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Smartphone for blind people coming soon