Technology at its best!

As the world gets more and more complex, we have people emerging with their own specialties and niches. And that is great news which is why see various new designations, which are an indication that we are moving in the right direction. Like Ajit Narayanan, who is a ‘Visual Grammar Engine inventor’. What on earth does that mean?

Well, an IIT Madras electrical engineer, he is actually the founder and CEO at Invention Labs, a Chennai based company and he is indeed a modern, today’s generation inventor.  He has some 20 patent applications but today, he is recognized for a life changing invention - Avaz AAC, the first assistive device aimed at an Indian market that helps people with speech disabilities -- such as cerebral palsy, autism, intellectual disability, aphasia and learning disabilities -- to communicate. In simple words, it means that his app helps children with communication disabilities to communicate by pointing out the pictures on a tablet using the software. It also gives voice output, helping them to learn better—a marked improvement from the paperbased picture communication book they used earlier. Avaz is also available as an iPad app, aimed at children with autism.

In 2010, Avaz won the National Award for Empowerment of People with Disabilities from the president of India, and in 2011, Narayanan was listed in MIT Technology Review 35 under 35. Initially, in 2009, he launched the product at a cost of Rs.30,000 but as technology evolved, his product too matured and he sells it now as a software for Rs.5000. This product is sold not just in India but across Europe, United States and Australia.

When technology is used for the benefit of the differently abled, changes lives for the better, it is indeed technology at its best. And we hope more and more inventors and entrepreneurs like Ajit are encouraged in our country and help make the world a better place to live in, in their own small ways.