A 23-year-old Ghanaian engineer, Melvin, has developed a beaded bracelet that allows people to communicate with each other through touch and voice messages.

The device, known as the Makoma bracelet, is a six-beaded wearable technology designed to connect users to selected people through their phones.

Each bead is assigned to one person in the user’s circle, allowing the wearer to identify who is contacting them without checking a screen.

Melvin was born and raised in Ghana before moving to the United States on a scholarship to continue his education, studying biomedical engineering at the University of Florida, with a minor in electrical engineering.

After completing university, he undertook research internships at Princeton University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), followed by three years of research in deep brain stimulation.

He initially planned to continue with graduate studies and applied to 17 programmes. Only two of the applications were successful.

He later turned his attention to finding a job and secured an offer from Neuralink, a company founded by Elon Musk that works on brain-computer technology.

However, the opportunity was later withdrawn because, according to TikToker Kobe Boujee, the company was unwilling to fund his visa as an international student.

With 90 days to either find another job or take one of the two PhD offers, including an offer from Columbia University, Melvin chose a different path.

Melvin, despite the setback, decided to invest his savings and efforts into developing the Makoma bracelet, drawing inspiration from a personal experience he had during his graduation.

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His visa application had reportedly been denied three times, preventing his family from attending his graduation. He had to attend the ceremony alone and could only speak to his mother through FaceTime.

With that experience, Melvin then thought of creating a way for people to feel connected even when they are apart.

The account explains that he wanted to “feel his mother’s touch and voice” at that moment.

Just 54 days after his graduation, Melvin built the first working prototype of the Makoma bracelet ready for pilot testing.

The bracelet is designed to work with a phone as a relay where users can assign one bead to each person they want to connect with.

A touch or pause on a particular bead indicates that the message is coming from that person, without the need to look at a screen.

Additionally, the bracelet can also be used to send an emergency alert by tapping a bead.

People who do not own the bracelet can still communicate with a Makoma user through their phones by sending voice messages. The messages can be received and answered through the bracelet.

@kobeboujee The 23yr old Ghanaian @Melvin / MAKOMA who went from being rejected by Neurallink to building the world’s first beaded technology “MAKOMA” bracelet 🇬🇭 …. #fyp #invention #ghana #ghanaian #ghanatiktok🇬🇭 ♬ original sound - Kobe Boujee