[Nfbc-info] Everything is getting cheaper

[rcubfank at sbcglobal.net]

I hope someone out there tries to get this person to convention this year.

-----Original Message----- 
From: Frida Aizenman via Nfbc-info
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2015 10:41 AM
To: nfbc-info at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Nfbc-info] Everything is getting cheaper

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:

block quote

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."

"This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are
addressed.

If you have received this email in error please notify the system
manager. This message contains confidential information and is intended
only for the

individual named. If you are not the named addressee you should not
disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender
immediately by

e-mail if you have received this e-mail by mistake and delete this
e-mail from your system. If you are not the intended recipient you are
notified that

disclosing, copying, distributing or taking any action in reliance on
the contents of this information is strictly prohibited."

block quote end

_______________________________________________
Nfbc-info mailing list
Nfbc-info at nfbnet.org
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfbc-info_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
Nfbc-info:
http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfbc-info_nfbnet.org/rcubfank%40sbcglobal.net