When Joti Gokaraju visited his grandfather in India several years ago, he noticed that he was not as talkative as usual. He learned that his grandfather was struggling with hearing, and that hearing aids were proving to be a challenging solution.
This led Joti, then in Grade 11 at Walter Murray Collegiate, to wonder how he could communicate with his grandfather if he was to lose both hearing and vision.
In Computer Science 20, Joti began developing a solution as a student-directed study assignment. This project became TouchTalk, an affordable, custom-designed communication platform for the deafblind.
Joti contacted researchers at the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to learn more about the issue and found that those with blindness and deafness often rely on volunteer guide communicators. Guide communicators are often in short supply, and do not provide the level of independence that some may want in their communication.
With this research, he developed and built the TouchTalk using pre-existing and 3D printed parts. Users can use the device to receive and send phrases between a computer app and the TouchTalk. When the user on the computer enters a message through speech or typing, motors move the TouchTalk display, which creates Braille letters for the user to read by touch. The deafblind user can send messages to the computer by typing on the TouchTalk.
Joti notes that he built the device for under $100, while the closest competitor costs $3,000.
Joti's innovation was rewarded at the Canada-Wide Science Fair in 2024, winning a Gold Excellence Award.
To see the TouchTalk in action, please view the video below.
