id you know India hosts 20% of the world’s visually impaired people but the Braille literacy rate in India is only 1%? Thankfully, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-K) have developed an innovative assistive technology aimed at promoting Braille literacy for visually impaired and blind individuals. In another breakthrough, the institute’s researchers have come up with a novel technology for lung health monitoring; but first, a look at the Braille learning device.
Developed by Siddhartha Panda and Vishwaraj Srivastava at the National Centre of Flexible Electronics (NCFlexE), IIT-K, the single refreshable cell-based Braille learning device with a touch sensitive array serves as a powerful tool for beginners embarking on their journey to learn Braille.
“Researchers worldwide have diligently worked towards reducing the cost of Braille devices, including exploring single-cell Braille solutions; however, such attempts have presented numerous challenges. We have tried to address those challenges in this device. Once patented and ready for commercial use, it would expectedly be a very affordable alternative,” Panda said.
Basically, the IIT Kanpur creation converts electronic text into Braille characters that can be read by touch. The existing devices in the market normally use multiple Braille cells to get the required functionality. But here, a single Braille cell has been seamlessly integrated with a cutting-edge touch array, enabling the device to deliver functionality comparable to multi-cell counterparts but at a significantly reduced cost. The device is specifically designed to instruct users in the fundamentals of Braille, covering basic characters, words and sentences.
Meanwhile, the other innovation is a continuous lung health monitoring system that has been jointly created by a group of inventors from IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, and the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Naya Raipur. The ministry of electronics and IT provided financial support for the innovation.
This is a low-cost, compact system that can help healthcare teams to track patients’ lung health status. It includes an acoustic mask with highly sensitive sound sensors and an intelligent corded device to sense the inaudible breathing sounds from the user’s mouth and nose. The corded device of the mask consists of a Wi-Fi module for sharing the lung health status with the healthcare provider. The device is equipped with a durable battery that provides continuous monitoring and a local storage unit that stores the processed audio data for long-term inferences and a processing unit that has inbuilt memory and microprocessor.
