Ajit Narayanan is the inventor of Avaz, an affordable, tablet-based communication device for people who are speech-impaired.

Why you should listen

Ajit Narayanan is the founder and CEO of Invention Labs, and the inventor of Avaz AAC, the first assistive device aimed at an Indian market that helps people with speech disabilities -- such as cerebral palsy, autism, intellectual disability, aphasia and learning disabilities -- to communicate. Avaz is also available as an iPad app, aimed at children with autism. In 2010, Avaz won the National Award for Empowerment of People with Disabilities from the president of India, and in 2011, Narayanan was listed in MIT Technology Review 35 under 35.
 
Narayanan is a prolific inventor with more than 20 patent applications. He is an electrical engineer with degrees from IIT Madras. His research interests are embedded systems, signal processing and understanding how the brain perceives language and communication.

What others say

“A brilliant idea which is worth sharing!!” — Pavan Kumar P N on TED.com

Ajit Narayanan’s TED talk

More news and ideas from Ajit Narayanan

Culture

Empowering autistic children: Ajit Narayanan at TED2013

February 28, 2013

Hailing from the Talent Search salon in Bangalore, Ajit Narayanan is here to tell us about his work helping autistic children to communicate. One of the challenges that faces those working in this field: People with autism can sometimes find it difficult to understand abstraction or symbolism–and therefore they struggle with language. Much contemporary therapy involves the use […]

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News

Coded Meaning: Speakers in Session 8 at TED2013

February 28, 2013

Communication in 2013 looks so different from what it ever has before. Will technology be the ruin of all that is good and true in language? We don’t think so. The speakers in this session explore how the future will bring even greater shifts in how we communicate — and it may well be for […]

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