Legos are much more than just toys; now they can help the visually impaired.
Shubham Banerjee, a seventh-grade student from California, has developed a low-cost fully functional Braille printer using Lego Mindstoms EV3.
The Lego Mindstorms EV3 Kit consists of an intelligent EV3 Brick with powerful ARM9 processor, Wi-Fi USB port and Internet connectivity, Micro SD card reader, back-lit buttons, and four motor ports.
Banerjee's goal was to prove there was a more affordable way to create a Braille printer that could be used for educational purposes. His printer cuts the cost from about $2,000 to $350.
The Lego printer, named Braigo, is made of just the $350 kit and an additional $5 worth of supplies from Home Depot.
Watch his demonstration below. Banerjee programmed the printer with letters A through Z and numbers 1 through 10.
In his next steps, Banerjee will make this an open-source project so that anyone who buys the kit and wants to build the printer can access the designs and software for free.
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