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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  Smartphone for the blind
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Smartphone for the blind

A Braille-display phone that's cheap enough to mass-produce could change lives

Sumit Dagar, the creator of the Braille phone Premium
Sumit Dagar, the creator of the Braille phone

Three years ago, Sumit Dagar, who has a postgraduate degree from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, started work on a smartphone for the visually challenged.

The 29-year-old, Delhi-based social entrepreneur and innovator says he felt that blind people were being left behind by the smartphone revolution, and that it was possible to address their needs. At the same time, the product also had to be commercially viable in a manner which would be helpful to them and enable a self-sustaining business.

The result is a phone that uses a dynamic Braille display Dagar came up with—the first step towards creating a smartphone for the blind. He says: “In the last one year, the pieces have started to fall in place. Expensive versions of what we’re doing already exist, but thanks to help from IIT (Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi), and because we’re not looking to make large profits, we’re close to creating something that will really help a person, and will cost only around 5% of what’s in the market right now."

Dagar’s phone is still in the prototype stage. The screen is a grid of blunt pins which can move up and down, in and out of the surface, allowing it to quickly form letters and numbers in Braille. The “resolution" of the phone is low for now—it takes around six pins to make a character, and only around 10 characters can be displayed on screen at one time.

“We’re not trying to make an iPhone right now. But we’re trying to give a fully personal device which has at least the functionality of a 1990s Nokia phone," Dagar says. That means being able to check the time or listen to music without any difficulty, without having to ask anyone to help.

It also involves more high-tech solutions, such as image recognition, colour identification and GPS tracking. Dagar, who has worked at Microsoft Research, and became a TED Fellow in 2011, is focusing on realistic targets. He says: “By next year, I want to bring this model to the market, because it is already able to make a difference. After one more year, we’ll have a continuous surface with a much higher resolution."

He adds, “The limitation is in place right now, but for things like checking the time, making a call or sending a message, it is usable, if uncomfortable." He admits that similar devices are available, but adds: “This kind of device costs around $4,000 (around 2.27 lakh), which isn’t practical. Our goal, which I am confident of meeting soon, is to make this technology available to people for around $200." Some of the products already in the market include the HumanWare BrailleNote, which costs £3,350 (around 2.9 lakh), and the Baum SuperVario, available on eBay for $1,249.

Dagar was chosen as a Rolex Young Laureate for Enterprise in 2012, which includes a grant of 50,000 Swiss francs in support of the project (or around 29.7 lakh). “Aside from the support from Rolex, I’ve also been working with IIT (Delhi) on this, and with the LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad," he says.

Most smartphones today are building voice controls, and include text-to-speech options, but Dagar feels this isn’t a good solution for the visually challenged.

He says: “Voice control actually has more limitations, it is often only in English, and that too with a particular accent. Plus, as a blind person, if you’re listening and talking to your phone, you’re fully cut off from the world, which is unsafe. You’re losing your privacy, because anyone can hear your messages, while our solution gives people their privacy and independence both."

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Published: 08 Jun 2013, 12:03 AM IST
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