Vietnamese high-schooler develops Braille conversion machine, wins national contest

A 17-year-old student in the central Vietnamese province of Quang Nam was crowned champion at a national science contest earlier this month for his machine that converts digital text to Braille.

Vo Trung Thien Tuong, a junior at Ly Tu Trong High School in Thang Binh District, won first prize at the 2016 National Science Contest for High School Students in the southern region from March 12 to 15.

His submission was a machine that ‘reads’ digital text from computers and converts them into Braille that can be read by the blind.

The 2016 National Science Contest for High School Students took place in Dong Nai Province, welcoming 206 science projects by 358 students in southern Vietnam.

The submissions came from 19 different fields of science, including social and behavioral sciences, animal bioscience, biochemistry, biomedical engineering and health sciences, Earth and environmental science, mechanical engineering, material science, robotics, systems software, and others.

Tuong’s idea for the machine came unexpectedly when he saw visually impaired kids struggling to type words into a computer at an Internet café when he was in 10th grade.

The experience inspired him to build a machine that transforms digital data into readable Braille, making it easier for blind people to access information.

The 2016 National Science Contest for High School Students in the southern region in Dong Nai Province, Vietnam, March 2016. Photo: Tuoi Tre

A year of hard work and persistent research using an old computer presented to him by his mother finally paid off with the completion of the machine.

“What this machine does is convert the language of sighted people to that of the visually impaired with a simple structure consisting of a microcontroller, two step motors to control the X and Y axes, two control circuits to control the movements of the axes, and a 12V source,” Tuong said.

“All the machine operator has to do is press the 'enter,' 'print,' or 'reset' buttons to control the functions of the machine,” he further explained.

Regarding his contest win, Tuong said, “It truly was a big surprise for me, as my project was humble compared to the others'. I see this as my launching point to continue creating other technologies that can contribute to the community.”

Prior to winning the national contest, Tuong had been awarded numerous other provincial certificates and awards throughout his high school tenure, mainly in the field of computer science.

“Tuong’s invention has been highly praised by many different organizations. The district’s Blind Association asked him to put the machine into practice in the locality even before it was complete,” said Truong Phuc Thinh, vice principal of Ly Tu Trong High School.

TTO