There are seven billion people on this planet, and nearly 5.9 billion of them use mobile phones. The devices now cover over 87 per cent of the globe and the market cap of the entire industry is pegged at a whopping trillion dollars.
For Sumit Dagar, who is from the country that has the highest number of blind people (India, with 37 million) people), a phone for the visually-challenged is not just a patent, it’s a revolution. So important is his work that Rolex has pumped in $50,000 to help him realise his, well, vision.
The man boy from a little village called Maidan Garhi — 17 km from Delhi — says, “Back in my village, education is not heard of. It was either the fields or a desk in some government office. But my dad and mum fought all odds to give us the best. I’m thankful to both.”
His device is currently undergoing testing in the hands of a number of “subjects”. But how different is it? “The screen has pixels that rise to form Braille characters making it easy for the blind to read. It is like any phone except that it uses Braille.” The device, set for a release early 2013 will be priced around `8,000.
“I don’t have my head in the clouds, I know my limitations, but arrogance is necessary for you to believe in your dreams. Arrogance, when channelled, will bring positive results,” says Sumit.
Guess it’s that mix of arrogance and “understanding limitations” that gave birth to the world’s first Brailleberry.