‘Braigo’ may benefit millions.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: Shubham Banerjee, a 12 year-old 7th grader in San Jose, California, has created a groundbreaking machine that prints Braille – all with nothing more than LEGO bricks and a few inexpensive additions from the Home Depot.
Banerjee’s invention, dubbed “Braigo,” has drawn the attention of millions of people around the world, and been recognized by several organizations both domestically and internationally. The LEGO Corporation, which is already in the news for its new The LEGO Movie, commended Banerjee for the Braigo via their Twitter account, and Banerjee also received a Recognition Award from the California State Assembly.
The Braigo was constructed from a LEGO Midstorms EV3 kit, which is widely used by robotics teams and schools across the nation, and typically costs in the neighborhood of $349. Added to this were about $5 worth of add-ons purchased by Banerjee from his local Home Depot. He then based his design off of a Braille printer known as the Banner Print3r, and designed a new software that could accurately print the Braille letters A-Z.
The final product, called BRAIGO v1.0 for its first iteration, will hopefully become a cost-effective way for those suffering from blindness to be able to print literature in Braille for themselves at home.
Banerjee – who was born in Hasselt, Belgium and moved to San Jose when he was just three years old – said that the idea for the Braille printer hit him when he decided to find an inexpensive way for those suffering from blindness to have easy access to Braille material.
Currently, around 285 million people around the world are afflicted with blindness, and Braille printers are prohibitively expensive for the average consumer to buy. While a decent, bottom-line computer printer can often be purchased for about $50-$100, a basic Braille printer costs at least $2,000.
“Can’t we do something about this,” Banerjee asked himself, and rhetorically asks the world the very same thing. Thankfully, he has now answered his own question.
Below is a demonstration video showing the Braigo in action. More such videos can be found on Banerjee’s YouTube page, which can be accessed via the video below:
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com
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