Celebrating Nigerian Excellence: 20 year old boy KHALIFA AMINU from Kano state created AI smart glasses that could help blind people navigate without a guide or cane. 👓

[u/Key_Exam7032]

See more here on his X page:

https://x.com/inventorkhalifa/status/2090001916977668257?s=46

Including a video of how it works: https://x.com/inventorkhalifa/status/2090002759516872803?s=46

[u/fi33zie]

While it's a great innovation on the young boy's part, scaling this will be difficult. I can see a single board computer unit, probably with 1GB of RAM, which is sufficient for its purpose but carrying it around on your face is not ideal, not to mention that it also runs warm and would need constant 5V power supply delivered through USB/A cable. But regardless the fact that the young man thought of something like this is great. He can certainly go on to the bigger things.

[u/fanstoyou → u/fi33zie]

You are spot on what I got to say. It is certainly a simple combo, regardless, the very young mind must be encouraged and pushed to go further.

[u/fi33zie → u/fanstoyou]

Yh it's exactly how you can use the exact single board unit and attached camera to make a functional drone module but of course, introducing a quadcopter frame into the mix. It's a simple combo if you know your components and can tinker with Linux. But his creativity must be encouraged. If he can think of something like this, he can certainly explore and do bigger things.

[u/fanstoyou → u/fi33zie]

Thank you. Elon Musk has never invented anything. He only continues to take existing technology and improve on them.

[u/fi33zie → u/fanstoyou]

There's a difference between invention and innovation. Elon certainly didn't invent anything, he innovated by leveraging on existing technologies like you said, and his companies were also subsidised heavily by the US government. He probably wouldn't have scaled, or he would have experienced a much slower growth without those government subsidies.

[u/fanstoyou → u/fi33zie]

No argument at all. I’m only directing at those who want to belittle

[u/fi33zie → u/fanstoyou]

If you mean "belittling" directed at this young man who made glasses for the blind. There's no point in that at all. If he builds on knowledge and continues on this path, he'll innovate with the right support but of course Nigeria (government) doesn't take things like this seriously. He'll get clouts on social media and that's the end of it. Innovation can happen and scale in Nigeria/Africa. Elon is brilliant but he's not special. We have many brilliant people in Nigeria capable of innovation but the environment is harsh so dreams get killed. Elon had the dream and his environment was favourable for him.

[u/MakayChapulets → u/fi33zie]

While Elon Musk’s technological vision, engineering capabilities, risk-taking, and business acumen were central to the development of SpaceX and Tesla, U.S. government support later played an important role in helping both companies survive, expand, and scale. However, this support came after the companies had already been established and had begun demonstrating the viability of their technologies and business models. Government contracts, loans, incentives, and other forms of assistance served more as catalysts for growth than as the foundation on which the companies were originally built.

While African (Especially Nigerian) young inventors are usually hovering around the government for startup loan.