Instead of enjoying the summer vacation time like most junior middle school students, Feng Boyao and Meng Shuqi are busy improving the Braille reading device they invented.

Feng and Meng, students at No 37 Middle School in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, spent nearly a year developing a new kind of Braille reading device and won the first prize at a recent provincial-level youth science and technology innovation competition.

The patented device will be entered in a national-level competition that will kick off in Beijing next week.

A large number of Braille contact dots have been set up on the device, which is 50 centimeters long and 10 cm high. It can render Braille content as a cursor moves across a computer screen via a computer application.

"Education for those people with visual disabilities is mainly based on Braille books, but very few Braille books can be found in the marketplace, or they are outdated and cannot meet the needs of the blind," Feng said. "A small number of people have access to Braille reading devices, which may sell for as much as 10,000 yuan ($1,549) or more."

"The cost of our device is much lower, so it will be advantageous for market promotion," he said.

In addition, because of its magnetic structure, the content displayed on the device is said to be more accurate than others.

"We hope our device can help reduce the proportion of blind people who become poor from lack of education," Meng said. "We also hope to contribute our power to China's poverty alleviation strategy."

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