“As a kid, I was curious towards all most everything in and around me. Developed many hobbies like gardening, reading, writing, various sports and but one thing that attracted me the most was electronic gadgets. Soon I discovered that it’s electronics which make me the happiest.
I was introduced to basic electronics by my father at the early age of 5. He bought a few batteries, LED, Motors, buzzers, and switches and it was fun to see them working – this interest led me to study a bit more on electronics and I started doing some of the projects for fun during my free time after studies and used my electronics in my school projects by adding LED and motor effect.
My interest in electronics was constantly growing and with support from my mother, I ordered many components and kits from amazon. This time it was not basic components but was different sensors and these sensors can be used to sense the distance. Motion detector, light, smoke and can provide a signal to other components for use or indication. I found these sensors to be so fascinating and understood that these can be used to make our world a better place to live in – each sensor could be used to build many gadgets/projects to make human life easier.
With my little knowledge of electronics and sensors, I developed my first project as LED on/off using a switch. Later with more interest, I developed an automatic hand sanitiser. The hand sanitiser was very useful at my house during the pandemic and I realized how we could use these small sensors and electronic components which can help people all around. Many fun projects like cotton the candy machine, portable fan cooler, automatic bubble making the machine, automatic street light, cycle light using dynamo motor, and many more were made but the one thing in this pattern was all these inventions came with a lot of effort and failed attempts but I never gave up in my dream to making something to help the world.
I have built an automatic hand sanitiser and automatic dustbin which I have used (an IR sensor) which is a radiation-sensitive optoelectronic component with spectral sensitivity in the infrared wavelength. IR sensors are now widely used in motion detectors, which are used in building services to switch on lamps or in alarm systems.
Active infrared sensors work with radar technology and they both emit and receive infrared radiation. This radiation hits the objects nearby and bounces back to the receiver of the device. Through this technology, the sensor can not only detect movement in an environment but also how far the object is from the device.
These sensors are good for detection between 100cm-500cm (1-5 meters / 3-15 feet). The long-range makes them a good alternative to sonar sensors. During the pandemic, I got a lot of support from my grandmother and one day, unfortunately, she met with an accident and got hurt herself. She was suffering from an eyesight visibility problem due to an underlying retina issue and had very poor visibility. Retinal diseases vary widely, but most of them cause visual symptoms. Retinal diseases can affect any part of your retina, a thin layer of tissue on the inside back wall of your eye.
This accident triggered me to think about what I could do to help her so she could sense the obstacles and be alert all the time and that accidents like this can be avoided in the future.
After 2-3 days of thinking, I got the idea to integrate the IR sensor, buzzer, and battery to detect obstacles. After a few failures, I learned to build a working prototype which I integrated with her spectacles which she is wearing now.
The obstacle detector detects any obstacle in front of you and sends the signal to the buzzer to beep, with a beep the person can get alert and change his/her direction.
My grandmother started using my innovation and now she is feeling safe and confident. This has given me great satisfaction and a sense of achievement along (being useful).
Later I took this project to school and then one of my friends asked me if it could be used by deaf and dumb folks. It hit my mind then and I started thinking for 2 full days to make this possible. I got an idea for the vibrator motor. If I could install a vibrator motor, IR sensor, and Buzzer in spectacle then it will be helpful for deaf and blind people
There are 1.5 million blind and deaf people in the world. It is such a miserable condition. Research has shown that 0.2% of the world’s population is living with severe deaf-blindness.
I firmly believe it could be useful for many more across the globe and I am going to make it open source, if anyone wants to build it, can build it.”