A social entrepreneur, Zuko Mandlakazi has created a wrist armband that can be useful in life-threatening situation for people with a hearing impediment.
This could also help people who cannot hear sounds in the environment that threaten their safety. Senso – a wrist wearable device that resembles a smart watch, is currently in its production phase.
Mandlakazi’s invention received a lot of attention at the recent ITU Telecom World conference held in Durban last week.
The entrepreneur says this is a significant step and is in line with deaf awareness initiatives as September is deaf awareness month.
Mandlakazi says the wrist band can pick up sound and alert the person by using vibrations and LED lights.
“We have developed a wrist band that a user could coordinate different sounds. The user could coordinate a specific colour. For an example if sound made by the child if the child is crying for attention that could be pink that could be blue, a safety evacuation. The alarm could be red. When the device detects any of these sounds the device is going to vibrate.”
See interview with Zuko Mandlakazi below:
