Jake Lacourse, a product engineer by profession, has a 2 year old daughter Rebecca who is losing her vision. Rebecca has been diagnosed with a rare genetic disorder called Usher syndrome, which can cause progressive blindness, and profound deafness. To ensure that she learns braille before she loses vision, Jake invented a game called Becdot that teaches Braille concepts using everyday objects.
This is how it works: The game has four Braille cells. Any objects that’s placed in the little compartment on the game is identified (using NFC technology), and the Braille equivalent of that object is displayed on the Braille cells.
But how do you get the objects to be recognized by Becdot? It’s an easy, three step process:
1. You type the word to be printed in the Braille cells in the accompanying phone app.
2. Take some NFC tags (they are pretty cheap), and touch the phone to tag to program it.
3. Place the tag on object that needs to be identified.
When the object is placed in the little compartment, the Braille letters appear on the Braille cells that can be felt, and learnt by the user.
Through this game, Jake plans to teach Braille concepts to children early on in their lives so they get prepared for a world that is by default, built for people who can see.
Looks like Becdot is not available for sale yet but Jake plans to start selling it for approximately $100.
Watch the video below to learn more about Becdot.
Source: Wbur
Website: bec-dot.com