Dreaming A better world with a portable braille printer

‘Jeomjeom-Deo’ the winner of presidential award of Life Inventions Korea 2020 [Photo provided = Korea Women Inventors Association]

In the COVID-19 era we often encounter sign language through the government briefings. Essential consideration that needs to resolve information imbalance for weak people has been born in Life Inventions Korea 2020. The interview was conducted with Yu-bin Song and Min-hee Park who developed a thoughtful invention which is a portable braille printer and received presidential prize.


‘Jeomjeom-Deo’ is a portable braille printer that both of disabled and non-disabled people can use. The name came from ‘Jeom’ (‘dot’ in Korean) and we named it with hope of making a better world by starting from Jeomjeom-Deo which makes a Dot. The existing braille printers were too large and heavy to carry but we focused on portability and designed it to be easily carried and can be used anytime. In addition the existing printers were available only for either blind people or non-blind people but ‘Jeomjeom-Deo’ is available to be used by both of groups. Therefore it makes non-blind people who don’t know any of braille able to communicate with blind people and they who are mostly service providers in daily life can provide braille information to blind people.

The reason why we came up with the idea of making braille printer was since we found out that blind people were not able to get basic information even at pharmacies. We also thought the reason ‘Why we just realized there was no system or service that should have existed already’ was because it is a non-disabled people’s privilege. Furthermore since we talked about this issue with one of our friends who usually has been discussing social issues with we named this idea and gave shape to the functions and started looking for the ways to make it realizable. At the beginning founding business was not our goal but we figured it out with hope of realizing the product and helping blind people. Along the way we found Life invention Korea and it looked like a huge attraction for us to move forward to commercialization.


There are many other supporting projects however the reason why we were attracted to Life Invention Korea was because ‘It was available to apply with just one idea if you are women’. It looked awesome to see the ideas gathered from various fields and the process of prototyping the ideas from women in all ages as we looked through the successive winners of the awards. The process of ‘Invention’ or ‘Start up’ looked far away and difficult but we thought it would be easier with Life Invention Korea and applied for it with a light heart. In addition the scrupulous follow-up steps such as patents and crowd funding were the crucial factors that led us to the decision to apply. Furthermore the most attractive thing from Life Invention Korea was ‘Practicality.’ Most of the invention competitions support only financial parts or mentoring but Life Invention Korea offers each of process that need for beginning of start-up such as mentoring patent application prototyping start-up training and funding. Therefore we expected that our ideas could be realized as a real product not just an idea.


The most worth part of producing a portable braille printer is when we had been told “It is really essential” by the people we know. One day we interviewed with a non-blind student who has a blind person in his family and it gave us a strong motivation when he told us that “It would be really helpful”. It was also worthwhile when the officials from several competitions and judgements told us “If it is commercialized it would be really useful” thinking that “We are going to the right way” or “We are on our way that someone should go”. On the other hands it was difficult when we faced our limits. We both are not specialists in this field and due to the lack of knowledge we urgently needed developers. At that time we were just two college students with no awards record or technical skills it was hard to make conclusion to hire a developer and actually it was not a piece of cake to find a developer. Above all of these since we both are college students it was hard to keep running business and study at the same time without taking a leave of absence. However we could not ask either sides to cut us some slacks. Therefore we had no other ways but doing our best. It was true that we both felt the limits physically and got stressed out a lot.


Our dream of 2021 is releasing the second prototype that can quickly function the way that people want. The existing prototype is the first trial product that formed with minimum functions which has a little difference with our ideal product. After prototyping the product with minimum level we have to consider the usability for blind people and proceed the multiple improvement process. Once the quality of the product gets stable to a certain point we are planning to enter the commercialization process such as promotion and attracting investment. Moreover we are planning to enter the crowd funding stage supported by Korea Women Inventors Association and unveil our product to the public in this year if it is possible. We hope to proceed a full-scale commercialization in this year but for now it is possible if the second prototype comes out great so the main goal is to make the second one well.

We want to deliver the message to women who are about to start new challenges with invention. One year ago we were just two college students. We both did not expect that the things we talked with curiosity while watching YouTube lying on bed led us to the Presidential prize. You are ready to challenge competitions if you have thoughts like “Why does something like this do not exist? It would be much easier if there is an idea like that.” We are sure as an experienced people that there is a more amazing and intense life waiting for women when they apply for Life Invention Korean in which is available to challenge with just one idea no matter who you are. We still think our challenge from one year ago is valuable in the way that we achieved the trembling and outstanding works such as start-up mentoring that we would have not experienced if we did not challenge the public presentations and interviews for prototyping and patents. It was not because we are special and amazing people we just challenged faithfully did what we have to do and finally met with good results. Just as we did not expect today from the last year for future women inventors who are reading this a year from now would be brighter than us and hope you would go for it.

Yu-bin Song the winner of presidential award of Life Inventions Korea 2020 [Photo provided = Korea Women Inventors Association]

Min-hee Park the winner of presidential award of Life Inventions Korea 2020 [Photo provided = Korea Women Inventors Association]Minhee Park the winner of presidential award of Life Inventions Korea 2020 [Photo provided = Korea Women Inventors Association]

(From the left) Yong-rae Kim Commissioner of the Korean Intellectual Property Office Min-hee Park Yu-bin Song and In-sil Lee the president of Korea Women Inventors Association [Photo provided = Korea Women Inventors Association]

Website: : http://www.wip-news.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=4645