Thai team wins science award with Braille invention

>> A team of three Thai school students from Phetchaburi won a science competition at the 6th Apec Future Scientist Conference 2017 for their invention of an internet-based Braille translation and printing programme.

National Science Museum (NSM) acting director Kannika Wongthongsiri said the contest is seen as an important innovative event among the Apec nations.

“This [award] has earned Thailand international recognition. And these Thai youths have proven that they can put their knowledge in science and technology to good use by helping underprivileged and the visually impaired people,” said Ms Kannika.

Held as part of the conference in Seoul, South Korea, from Jan 7 until yesterday, the competition was attended by participants from various countries, including the US, South Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.

The members of the Thai team were Alongkorn Boonchroen, Khakkhanes Suthirat and Nawarut Phrairungruang. They are all Mathayom 6 students at Princess Chulabhorn’s College Phetchaburi.

Mr Alongkorn said because he and his friends have helped to send documents in Braille to schools for the visually impaired, they often encountered problems turning the documents into both Thai and English Braille and were attempting to resolve the problems.

In t he award-wining project, t he team invented a computer program that improves accuracy when converting documents into Braille and increasing the ease of printing them out, he said.

The program is compatible with all devices and can be used on several devices at the same time, he said.

His team aims to further develop the program so that it can be used to convert into Braille academic documents with special characters and symbols such as those found in chemistry and mathematics formulas, Mr Alongkorn said.

The Phetchaburi team was selected by the NSM and the Science Society of Thailand to compete in the Apec competition.