Inspired by aunt to help deaf

In a world short of inventors, a 33-year-old Cofimvaba man has invented a “lifesaving” device for deaf people – earning him a spot in the top 50 African innovators list. Walter Sisulu University accountancy alumnus Zuko Mandlakazi invented the Senso device.

The Senso device, which can be worn on the wrist, picks up sounds and communicates them to the wearer through vibration and colour-coded LED lights.

Users can co-ordinate five specific everyday life sounds that are important to them to LED coloured lights they can remember.

For example, the sound made by an infant when waking up could be pink, a safety evacuation alarm red, a door knock or intercom purple and any forced entry sound green.

Mandlakazi said the device was inspired by his aunt.

“My aunt has always been hard of hearing. She lip-reads to fully understand what people around her are saying.

“In the family, we’ve always had to talk extremely loudly . . . to her.”

When his aunt started visiting him in Gauteng, he realised that she struggled in the city, he said.

“To solve her problem, I looked for devices she could use but all the devices that were available were too expensive and intrusive, [requiring] surgery where a speaker is inserted inside a person’s inner ear.

“I started thinking about millions of other people faced with the same challenge as her.”

In 2014, Mandlakazi started the journey to develop a costeffective device that would make the lives of deaf people easier and safer.

However, he was hampered by a lack of capital.

“The device we developed at the time for demonstrations was not enough for us to use as proof of concept and to raise more funding,” he said.

“So we used entrepreneurial competitions to raise funds.”

The prototype device won him prize money in several entrepreneurial competitions, including the Gauteng Accelerator Programme Innovation Competition and the SA Breweries Foundation Social Innovation Awards.

“Through cash prizes won in these competitions, we developed Senso’s very first proof of concept which enabled us to raise funding that has seen us develop the Senso product.”

After the competitions, the government finally come through last December when he received funding from the trade and industry department to develop the device.

He said he was unable to disclose the amount of money invested in the device by several funders at this stage, as they were still fundraising.

“We will be able to share those details once we are done with fundraising,” he said.

In June, Mandlakazi was invited to attend the African Innovators Summit in Kigali, Rwanda where he was named among the top 50 innovators on the continent.

He aims to launch the product during the last quarter of 2018, when it will become available at selected retailers.

“It will cost no more than R2,500,” he said.