As a child, Shubham Banerjee loved LEGO® bricks. However, the ninth-grader from Santa Clara, California, never imagined that his interest in them would help him transform the lives of people with disabilities—but that’s exactly what happened.
In 2013, Shubham’s family received a flyer in the mail from an organization that helps the visually impaired. “I didn’t really know how blind people read,” he recalls, “so I started Googling.”
Shubham ended up learning about Braille—a system of raised dots that stand for letters, which allows blind people to read with their fingertips. To interpret information from computers, they use specialized printers to print documents in Braille. But these devices can cost more than $2,000 each.
That shocked Shubham, so for his school science fair, he decided he would attempt to build a more affordable Braille printer. He eventually found a way using a LEGO robotics kit. The best part? His invention, called Braigo, costs just $375 to make.
Shubham admits creating his printer took some trial and error. While most Braille printers print letters as raised dots, his invention uses a pushpin to poke holes in a sheet of paper. Blind people can read by feeling the holes that stand for each letter.
“I had to build and break seven different models and try all kinds of programming sequences before settling on one that was able to print . . . according to Braille standards,” Shubham says.
But his hard work has paid off. In 2014, Shubham formed his own company, Braigo Labs. And, thanks to an investment from Intel, he hopes to start manufacturing a new version of his printer—one that doesn’t use LEGO parts—soon.
In the meantime, Shubham has put instructions for building his original printer online so others can learn how to do it—for free. “My goal,” he says, “is to help those who need to understand and read Braille more easily be able to do so.”