[Nfbc-info] Everything is getting cheaper

[Frida Aizenman]

Here in Nevada where I live now, my cousins David and Doris who also 
live here, sent me separate emails with the article below:

Frida

Re: Everything is getting cheaper

Cool! Another budding genius with a social conscience. More power to him!

In a message dated 1/20/2015 9:31:59 A.M. Pacific Standard Time, 
dtamboryn at heritagebanknevada.com writes:

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Interesting article

SANTA CLARA, Calif. --- In Silicon Valley, it's never too early to 
become an entrepreneur. Just ask 13-year-old Shubham Banerjee.

The California eighth-grader has launched a company to develop low-cost 
machines to print Braille, the tactile writing system for the visually 
impaired.

Tech giant Intel Corp. recently invested in his startup, Braigo Labs.

Shubham built a Braille printer with a Lego robotics kit as a school 
science fair project last year after he asked his parents a simple 
question: How do

blind people read? "Google it," they told him.

Shubham then did some online research and was shocked to learn that 
Braille printers, also called embossers, cost at least $2,000 --- too 
expensive for most

blind readers, especially in developing countries.

"I just thought that price should not be there. I know that there is a 
simpler way to do this," said Shubham, who demonstrated how his printer 
works at

the kitchen table where he spent many late nights building it with a 
Lego Mindstorms EV3 kit.

Shubham wants to develop a desktop Braille printer that costs around 
$350 and weighs just a few pounds, compared with current models that can 
weigh more

than 20 pounds. The machine could be used to print Braille reading 
materials on paper, using raised dots instead of ink, from a personal 
computer or electronic

device.

"My end goal would probably be having most of the blind people ... using 
my Braille printer," said Shubham, who lives in the Silicon Valley 
suburb of Santa

Clara, just minutes away from Intel headquarters.

After the "Braigo" --- a name that combines Braille and Lego --- won 
numerous awards and enthusiastic support from the blind community, 
Banerjee started Braigo

Labs last summer with an initial $35,000 investment from his dad.

"We as parents started to get involved more, thinking that he's on to 
something and this innovation process has to continue," said his father, 
Niloy Banerjee,

an engineer who works for Intel.

Shubham used the money to build a more sophisticated version of his 
Lego-based printer using an off-the-shelf desktop printer and a newly 
released Intel

computer chip. The new model, Braigo 2.0, can translate electronic text 
into Braille before printing.

Intel executives were so impressed with Shubham's printer that in 
November they invested an undisclosed sum in his startup. Intel 
officials believe he's

the youngest entrepreneur to receive venture capital, money invested in 
exchange for a financial stake in the company.

"He's solving a real problem, and he wants to go off and disrupt an 
existing industry. And that's really what it's all about," said Edward 
Ross, director

of Inventor Platforms at Intel.

Braigo Labs is using the money to hire professional engineers and 
advisers to help design and build Braille printers based on Shubham's ideas.

The company aims to have a prototype ready for blind organizations to 
test this summer and have a Braigo printer on the market later this 
year, Niloy Banerjee

said.

"This Braille printer is a great way for people around the world who 
really don't have many resources at all to learn Braille and to use it 
practically,"

said Henry Wedler, who is blind and working on a doctorate in chemistry 
at the University of California, Davis. Wedler has become an adviser to 
Braigo

Labs.

An affordable printer would allow the visually impaired readers to print 
out letters, household labels, shopping lists and short reading 
materials on paper

in Braille, said Lisamaria Martinez, community services director at the 
San Francisco Lighthouse for the Blind, a nonprofit center that serves 
the visually

impaired and prints Braille materials for public agencies.

"I love the fact that a young person is thinking about a community that 
is often not thought about," said Martinez, who is visually impaired.

Shubham is too young to be CEO of his own company, so his mother has 
taken the job, though she admits she wasn't too supportive when he 
started the project.

"I'm really proud of Shubham. What he has thought, I think most adults 
should have thought about it," Malini Banerjee said. "And coming out of 
my 13-year-old,

I do feel very proud."

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