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Comment by Alex-Programs

5 days ago

Lots of things! I'm in a gap year.

To start with, there's https://nuenki.app. It's a browser extension that selectively translates sentences into the language you're learning, so you're constantly immersing yourself in text at your knowledge level.

I've also been working with a friend on a device to help blind people without light perception. I'm quite new to electronics. It's pretty simple, conceptually - a coin-sized device on the forehead that takes in the light intensity in a ~15 degree cone, then translates it into high resolution haptic feedback to the forehead.

The idea being that it means people without light perception can gain a sixth sense through neuroplasticity, with helps them navigate the room and understand their surroundings. We're planning on open sourcing the files. My mum used to teach blind kids, and there's been quite a lot of interest!

As for Nuenki, I'm pretty bad at marketing, so I'm doing a final lot of work to see if I can make it work financially - seeing if an exceptionally generous affiliate program will do the trick - before putting it on maintenance mode, since I have a small group of users who really like it. I'm burning through my gap year fast, and really want to focus on the electronics project, tutoring, and practicing maths for my physics degree.

Just installed Nuenki, really excited to give this a try. Amazing how it can hopefully iteratively help me learn Spanish while I don't change my behavior much.