He set up a box to chat with his grandmother in isolation and it went viral

What if there was an easier way to use Telegram? What would a merger of the old fax and telephone with instant messaging technologies look like? Is it possible to create a cat suitable for grandparents? At one point, some of these random questions may have crossed the mind of Manuel Lucio, a computer engineer from Burgos, Spain. But it was only when a concrete need arose that he thought of translating them into a device created from his ability to program.

Since the start of the second isolation of the coronavirus in his country, Manuel and his family have been isolated, divided between Oviedo, Bilbao, Burgos and Madrid. And Yaya, the matriarch of the whole brood, was running out of weapons to communicate with hers. His advanced osteoarthritis robbed him of the fine motor skills of his fingers, so necessary to slide across the screen of a cell phone. Therefore, his grandson decided to create a system for chatting without resorting to touch screens: he demonstrated that it was possible to use Telegram with the devices that were used before.

This is how he created Yayagram, something he explains as a box for sending voice messages.. Seemingly simple, somewhat precarious, the box does much more than it promises. To use it, Yaya must press a red button and bring her mouth closer to the microphone; This is how it produces the audio messages that will later reach each grandchild’s cell phone. To choose her recipient, the grandmother must connect two cables, like the old telephone operators, and choose the person she wants to contact.

One terminal is named after Yaya and the others are named after her grandchildren. Irene, Beatriz, María, Lucía, Ana, Fran and Manuel are the owners of the other terminals and those chosen to receive Yayagram messages, which reach their Telegram accounts like a traditional audio message.

With this new device, Yaya can send voice messages to all of her grandchildren using phones from before. He is not yet used to using a button to send messages, as young people do on their cell phones. For this reason, Manuel suggests changing the microphone of an old phone, to recreate those times when the audio messages were phone calls.

The Spanish grandmother can also receive text messages, which arrive on her device translated as a fax. Thus, the Yayagram has a kind of receipt printer, similar to that of a supermarket, which prints messages in large letters, suitable for your already tired eyes.

Although Yaya is thrilled with the invention and already handles it with ease, the first test was a challenge for everyone. She and Manuel communicated via the Yayagram and had a fluent conversation about the grandson’s dinner. So the woman learned that the engineer had artichokes with ham for dinner. An everyday scene, perhaps too simple, but which gave him the closeness he needed in a moment of solitude.

Using his programming skills, Manuel created a device that brought together the technologies of three generations. The telephones of the cable companies have been mixed with fax and instant messaging to allow communication that knows no age. And so, the photos in his box became the star of the Twitter social network, with thousands of users celebrating the invention.

Although the 35-year-old engineer thought about patenting his invention, he then went with the idea of ​​more grandchildren and grandparents going online during isolation, so he suggests that more young people be encouraged. to recreate the Yayagram. You only need languages ​​available in the Python libraries and a series of entries which in Burgos cost 76 euros.

Given the viralization of his device and the messages reaching him from different parts of the globe, Manuel prefers to take advantage of his fleeting notoriety to create a tutorial. The goal has never been commercial. The real objective is another: it is to federate the generations through a translation and to adapt the technologies so that everyone, whatever the year, feels a little closer.