School of Mechanical Engineering Jang, Won-Seok and Department of Family and Housing Studies Yoo, Ah-Young team awarded at the 'Korean Students Creative Idea Business Plan Competition'
'Mobile braille keyboard and braille pad for the visually impaired'
[Nov 22, 2013]

 YU students won the excellence award at the '2013 Korean Students Creative Idea Business Plan Competition'.

 Jang, Won-Seok (27, junior in the School of Mechanical Engineering) and Yoo, Ah-Young (22, junior in the Department of Family and Housing Studies) won the award. They were awarded after passing a preliminary against over 100 teams and then competing in the final presentation at the competition held at Sungkyunkwan University on the 6th.

 The winning idea was 'Mobile braille keyboard and braille pad for the visually impaired'. While mobile devices have become an essential part of modern life, the visually impaired had no choice but to use earphones to use such devices. This product is inspired by such idea.

 Yoo, Ah-Young explained, "At a subway station I saw a blind person using a mobile phone with earphones, and saw a dangerous situation where that person was unable to hear the bell as the subway entered the station." She added, "I thought that if there is a mobile device for the visually impaired, it might be able to help utilize their sense of hearing."

 The two who met at 'HanOulHoe', which is a youth education volunteer club at YU, said, "I was always interested in welfare for the marginalized classes such as youths, the elderly, and the handicapped," and added with an air of happiness, "I think that manifesting our idea for this competition while thinking about mobile devices for the visually impaired led to such great results."

 Jang, Won-Seok, who was the team leader, said, "We are still at the basic idea stage so it is difficult to process large volumes of data and there are still some areas to be improved upon such as the long time it takes," and added, "Based on such idea, I hope that experts can commercialize it so that the visually impaired can have a more convenient life."