Didier Yapi (1976-2015)

September 18, 2017 
/ Contributed By: Rudy Massamba

Didier Yapi

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Yapi Nโ€™Cho Blaise Didier of Cรดte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), often referred to as Didier Yapi, was a prolific information technology (IT) inventor/ researcher in Africa from about 1998 until his death in 2015. Yapi was born in 1976, in the Gรดh Djiboua Region (Gagnoa) in Cรดte d’Ivoire and died April 6, 2015, of pneumonia, an illness that had afflicted him for several years. Dead Cryptor, Mystery 7ยฐ Mouse, and Incorporated Keyboard 1 (IK1), are among his many inventions.

Yapi gained international fame in 2009 when TV5 Monde, one of France‘s international TV channels, ran a report on his invention โ€œDead Cryptor,โ€ which can prevent software or programs from copying the contents of a DVD or CD-ROM. In 2001, Yapi researched CD-ROMs and DVDs in order to understand how they work and how they were made, concentrating on the organic matter found in CDs and DVDs. He then designed and manufactured the Dead Cryptor prototype in 2003, earning widespread recognition in the IT community. His device, which could have prevented piracy of copyrighted recordings, among other things, was never financed, despite the fact that it was presented before the Ivorian Copyright Office (BURIDA) in 2006 and 2007.

Undeterred, Yapi continued inventing. He designed and manufactured the Mystery Mouse 7ยฐ, a computer mouse that knows the age of its user and can thus prevent minors from accessing certain files or websites. Moreover, the Mystery Mouse 7ยฐ can create a greeting sensation from a vibration sent over the Internet between remote users. Yapi also conceived the Mezo Webcam that can compress real-time videos regardless of users mobile or fixed Internet connection speeds. In other words, even slow connections would not prevent users from accessing high-resolution images from Skype and similar interfaces or applications.

In 2014, just one year before his death, Yapi showcased his last inventions. Because he wanted to eliminate computer keyboards, he designed and manufactured the IK1, an โ€œinvisibleโ€ keyboard accessible digitally in โ€œ4 dimensionsโ€ (Yapiโ€™s term) on a flat and empty surface, such as a desk. The operational prototype is suited to users already familiar with the location of keyboard keys on conventional keyboards. In other words, users must have a โ€œmental projectionโ€ of the location of the keys on their desks while typing.

Given the limitations of the IK1, Yapi started work on the IK2 that would have helped users locate the invisible keyboard thanks to a light projection of the keyboard keys on the desk. Every time a user moves close to the computer, the invisible keyboard lights up on the desk; when they move away, the keyboard disappears.

Yapi was thirty-nine years old at the time of his death in Abidjan, Cรดte d’Ivoire. His inventions held much promise but never received financial support and have not reached the stage of industrial mass production. Still, Yapi remains a role model for many Africans in and beyond the IT industry.

About the Author

Author Profile

In 2006, Rudy L. Massamba published, in French, a book titled Lโ€™Afrique noire industrielle that focuses on industrial development strategies in Africa across 9 industries. In 2009 he founded Kumatoo.com, which is a platform that enables African inventors to exhibit virtually their inventions and innovations. By 2015, he had gathered enough valuable information about African inventions and inventors, and was able to write his second book titled โ€œDebunking Myths around African Talentโ€ which was published in 2017. Rudy L. Massamba double majored in International Business Administration and International Economics from the American University of Paris, and holds a General Management Programme Certificate from Wits Business School (South-Africa).

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Massamba, R. (2017, September 18). Didier Yapi (1976-2015). BlackPast.org. https://www.blackpast.org/global-african-history/yapi-didier-1976-2015/

Source of the Author's Information:

โ€œDidier Yapi,โ€ TV5 Monde, June 29, 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9Oyzs7u1yY; โ€œDidier Yapi,โ€ Kumatoo, May 2014, https://kumatoo.com/didier_yapi.html; and โ€œYapi Didier,โ€ France SlideShare Net, April 29, 2014, https://fr.slideshare.net/SimpliceBoni/biographie-34093323.

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