A 12-year boy has designed an open-source braille printer made from Lego. Having spotted a flyer that came through the door of his Californian home raising money for the visually impaired, Shubham Banerjee did some online research and discovered that braille printers cost $2,000 – putting them completely out of reach for most people. Using the tools he had to hand, he modified a Lego robot set to make a printer that uses pins to indent braille into a roll of paper.
“I think I am doing something that can help people,” he says “There are 285 million visually impaired people in the world and 90{ff546b69e23b1524d799f96c6ba7a638e1f677053b0a2a1568b05315fd5f8fc7} of them are in developing countries.” He has already started sharing instructions and videos online and wants to make Baigo completely open source so that people can make their own. The current model uses the Lego Mindstorms EV3 kit costing $349 together with some add-ons costing another $5, but he is working on a new version to bring the cost below $150.
He wants to be a neurosurgeon when he grows up. Having recently had a pretty depressing conversation with two sisters, 5 and 8, who both wanted to be pop stars, I think Shubham is one inspiring kid. The future needs more like him.
Further reading for the especially geeky:
- design for good :: patient dignity
- design for good :: a better a&e
- design for good :: a litre of light
- design for good :: gert
