BENGALURU: Physics of vibrations and its potential to make human life better occurred to Shivaprakash in Class 10 and he began experimenting on how a mere phone call could turn off a water pump from a distance. This journey with physics made this teenager bring about a solution for hearing impaired persons.
On Saturday, Shivaprakash, second-year BE student of Kongu Arts and Science College, Erode, won the second place at the National B-plan competition for this invention of a model that works on the basis of bone conducting technology — which transfers vibrations from bone to nerves to the brain. He created a small box which converts the sound to vibrations, which are transferred through a wire to the user. While one end of the wire is connected to the vibrator converter, the other end is to be bitten by the user who is hearing impaired. The vibrations pass from the bones connected to the teeth and to the nerves that carry the sound to the brain.
Shivaprakash said he has been experimenting with vibrations and its uses ever since Class 10. And over time, its use for the hearing impaired occurred to him. Son of a driver and a homemaker, Shivaprakash has taken on himself to fund his own research and has taken his technology to eight competitions so far.
Coming from a small town in Erode, he said language has always been a barrier in communicating his ideas thus far, and the competitions give him an opportunity to learn. A mere second year BE student, Shivaprakash on Saturday won the second place at the competition where he was competed with MBA students from top institutions in the country.He is now patenting a low-cost compact ear piece which is based on this mechanism.