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Low Cost Braille Printer
Santokh Singh and Khushwant Rai
Jalandhar, Punjab

8th National Grassroots Innovation - 2015

 Innovator Profile

The low cost Braille printer developed by Santokh and Khushwant is a modification in conventional dot matrix printer. The dot matrix printers have 9, 18 or 24 pins, which strike over the ink ribbon. This prints letters on a paper when pins strike over it. The paper is supported by a roller when letters are printed on it. By altering the size of the roller and removing the ink ribbon, the pins are made to strike the paper directly and give the desired impression. This innovation is very low cost as compared with Braille printers available in the market.

Both the friends once visited a blind school for a school project where they saw much of the printing work done manually, which was quite time consuming. One of the teachers there asked them to see if anything could be done in this regard. They came back and did some background search and found that while Braille printers were available they were quite costly. Zeroing down on dot matrix printer, they decided to go ahead with their plans to develop a Braille printer of their own.


Khushwant has been fond of experimenting with electronic gadgets since his childhood and has developed gadgets like electronic stethoscope, water level indicators, LED displays, etc. He likes to play cricket and chess, do Java /C++ programming and surf the net. A budding poet, Khushwant wishes to be an astronaut and explore space. Currently he is enrolled in a degree course in electronic engineering.


Santokh is also pursuing his engineering course and wants to become an aeronautical engineer. Mathematics and Physics have been his favourite subjects. He likes to play football and volleyball and make friends. He is a spiritual person and likes being in the serene environment at the Golden Temple. He enjoys the company of his visually challenged friends. Both of them had participated in NIF’s competition as school students.