A group of students from CEC was selected for the Texas Instruments Innovation Challenge. They’ve submitted the project prototype. Here’s it. Do watch, share and support them.

Team members (CEC 2016 BTech EEE): Muhammed Rabeeh N, Aiswarya Rachel Cherian

Mentor: Mr. Shanu N, Asst. Professor, Dept. of ECE, CEC.

This Project aims at developing new product Braille – Voice Reader which can be used to convert text file to Braille characters using mechanical pins. This is implemented using Texas Instrument’s Beagle Bone Black and Braille Actuators using Solenoids. The beagle bone will detect the text file automatically once the device is switched on and a potentiometer is used to control the delay time which is given to ADC pin of the beagle bone also a panel of LEDs is connected to the GPIO pins which would blink according to the character in the external storage device. The prototype for the actuators is shown using LEDs. An audio circuit can also be provided.

TIIC IDC 2015-Team 1364-“Braille Audio Enabled Translator and Trainer”

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vrja6obcw8]

Humanitarian aid comes in many ways for this project. Due to its simple circuitry it could overcome the drawbacks (small scale production and hence less availability, large cost, concept design) of current technologies in education for blind. According to the WHO, 90% of blind people live in the developing countries where the current technologies have failed to reach out. Blind children need special training in understanding spatial concepts and self-care, as they are often unable to learn because of the lack in visual feed-back. Also they can’t learn through imitation as they don’t see what other children do. In many cases parents are the ones who actually teach Braille. The product proposed could also help in Braille training. It could translate Braille easily and at affordable cost anyone can be trained in Braille. It could also be used as a reading aid for the blind.

The team aims at jointly working with state branch of National association for blind (NBA) to distribute this simple, effective and low cost electronic venture on a large scale so that it could bring a revolution in the education of total of 22,000 blind students in our State covering a total of 5 districts. Government has put forward several job opportunities for the blind but they are not utilized because of the lack in education. This project will help educate the blind and hence will help bridging this gap.