Indian-developed device helps cerebral palsy kids talk
By siliconindia   |   Friday, 24 September 2010, 22:23 IST   |    5 Comments
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Indian-developed device helps cerebral palsy kids talk
Bangalore: Upon completing his graduation from Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, Ajit Narayan went to U.S. with the plan of returning to India after a few years to be an entrepreneur. In 2007, Ajit was back in India and with a few like-minded friends, he started Invention Labs. In 2010, they invented Avaz, one of the most useful talking devices for those affected with cerebral palsy, writes Shobha Warrier from Rediff.com. Ajit's idea of founding a company was that a lot of inventors from all over India should join hands under one umbrella so that everyone could contribute to the country. "I was very impressed with the way America had adopted technology in day-to-day life. I wanted to invent things that would improve the lives of Indians. So it was my dream that I should start a company that would create products which are useful to the people of India," said Ajit. Visiting the disabled at Vidyasagar (formerly called the Spastic Society of India) and getting to know those children with normal intelligence who could not express themselves in words, gave birth to the idea of designing a communication device similar to what is used in the U.S. but is affordable to people here. Spending hours with the children at Vidyasagar and doing experiments with the updated prototypes at every sessions over two years, they launched Avaz in February 2010 at Vidyasagar. Avaz, which means 'speech', gives speech to a child. The device is mounted on the wheelchair which the child uses. It can be kept on the desk or on the child's lap. They used the T9 method used in mobile phones. "We looked at it as T1 where we have to capture only one movement; the movement of the hand, head or leg. It is like, converting those movements to creating sentences. After creating sentences, we create voice. It works on a principle called scanning," Ajit explained. These children do not have the dexterity to touch the exact word on the screen. So once they touch anywhere on the screen, a color moves to each word and when it reaches the right word, they need to touch again, anywhere on the screen. Our target price was 1/10th of what was sold abroad but we were able to do better than that. Our target was Rs 40,000, but we could sell it for 30,000. The company's aim is to incorporate the device into the way children are taught in various institutions so that teachers can structure education with the help of Avaz. Although Avaz only talks in English at present, efforts are being made to introduce other local languages in it. Invention Labs' next plan is Avaz for autism, dyslexia, mental retardation and people affected by stroke.

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