12-year-old Invents Low-cost Braille Printer

Shubham Banerjee calls his invention the Braigo. The California whiz kid modified a robot model from his MINDSTORMS EV3 set to help the blind…

Shubham Banerjee, 12, turned his toy set into a low-cost Braille printer, demonstrating his invention in videos he posted online.
“This is so easy, even my little sister can do it,” Shubham says in one of the YouTube videos.

He used a $350 LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 set, modifying a robot model to make a functional printer at a fraction of the cost of other machines on the market.
Basic model Braille printers retail for about $2,000 online.

Shubham calls his invention Braigo, a mash-up of Braille and LEGO. Users can type in letters, and the Braigo’s needle will hammer out the translated message in raised dots on paper.
He came up with the idea after he saw a flier asking donors to help the blind, NPR reported.

Rather than cash in on his design, Shubham put the instructions online and encouraged people to make their own.
“I feel really bad for the visually impaired,” he told CNN. “I hope to do more actually. I hope to make more, helping the people around.”
The young inventor is still in seventh grade, but he’s planning a bright future as a doctor a scientist or an engineer.

Taken from: www.nydailynews.com