GUWAHATI, Dec 9 - In keeping with this year�s National Children�s Science Congress (NCSC) focal theme �Science, Technology and Innovation for Sustainable Development: With Special Emphasis on Persons with Disabilities�, a team of young scientists from Assam Jatiya Bidyalay, who will be representing the State in the forthcoming national level NCSC at Ahmedabad, has come up with a novel device for helping the deaf in their routine activities.
The device developed by the team emits vibration upon receiving a sound and alerts the user. It comprises three parts � a condenser microphone, a magnifier and frequency selector circuit, and a vibrator.
�After the condenser microphone receives a sound it converts the sound energy into electrical energy which goes to the magnifier and frequency selector circuit. The sound energy converted into electrical energy is very small in quantity and so the circuit magnifies the quantity of the energy. The magnified and selected energy goes to the vibrator through the circuit and it vibrates, alerting the person in the process,� Kaustav B Arya (group leader) and a Class VIII student, told The Assam Tribune.
The other young scientists in the project � all Class VIII students of the school � are Sourav Kumar Barman, Bhaswati Choudhury and Ananya Medhi.
Arya added that the vibrator would be connected directly to the body of the user so that the person could feel the vibration and be aware of the sound, e.g., a horn coming from behind, and take right decisions in that critical moment. It will be handy for a deaf person experiencing hardship while walking, driving and riding on the road.
The team has named the gadget as �Horn for the Deaf: A Sensitive Gadget.�
�As the cost of making the full device is just about Rs 100, every deaf person will be able to have it and use it properly,� he added.
The team has been guided by Pankaj Dutta, teacher of their school. �Sir has helped us a lot in choosing a sensitive problem and resolving to evolve a sensitive solution. We are also thankful to the Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology (IASST) which provided us their facilities to work on the device as we conceived it,� Arya said.
The team started experimenting on the device from June 2017. Dr Nirab Chandra Adhikary of IASST assisted the team in the process and the team created the device on September 1.
The national level NCSC will be held in Ahmedabad from December 27 to 31.
Earlier, the team had exhibited the device at the district level NCSC at Pragjyotish College here and at the State-level NCSC in Kokrajhar.