World’s first smartphone for the blind developed using braille characters

An Indian based startup company recently announced that they’ve created the world’s first smartphone for the blind.

Sumit Dagar of Braille phone said,”We have created the world’s first Braille smartphone. This product is based on an innovative ‘touch screen’ which is capable of elevating and depressing the contents it receives to transform them into ‘touchable’ patterns.”

He also added,”It comes out as a companion more than a phone to the user. We plan to do more advanced versions of the phone in the future.”

The phone does not use a screen. It uses “Shape Memory Alloy Technology” which basically uses metals which can remember their original shape. The phone uses floating pins in the shape of braille characters which can rise or fall according to the message.

The response during its testing phase also seems promising as Dagar pointed it out. The phone’s design stage started three years ago as he was studying for India’s National Institute of Design. With this idea, he quit his job, reached out to a few companies and started focussing on making a phone for the blind. He then started a new venture called Kriyate Design Solutions and had a team of six engineers and designers who worked very hard on the phone. The funding for the project came from Rolex’s Young Laureates Program which gave the new company the money required to complete this project.

Source: VR-Zone