Just before his mother died in July, Son Le of Lehi had an idea.

His elderly mother, Mai Lam, grew up in China and Cambodia without ever learning to read or even knowing her own birth date. Because of this she could not look up the phone number of her doctor, or even her children, Le said.

As a gift, Le decided to create a device that would dial for her when she pressed a button next to a friend or relative's photo in a special book.

"I love my mom," Le said. "My mom and I were very close. ... She died before she could use it."

Three months after his mother's funeral, Le completed a prototype of his invention. Called the FotoDialer, the device dials preprogrammed numbers for those who can't read or have difficulty dialing, and is available at Walgreens stores. The device features six plastic pages with four 2-by-3 inch slots for pictures on each page and sensors that tell the instrument which page or phone number to dial.

The invention can also be modified for the blind. Peter Miner, director of the Utah Center for Assistive Technology, purchased a FotoDialer to lend to disabled patrons of his agency.

"I can see some circumstances where something like this would be very helpful," Miner said. "For example, if you have someone with a stroke who has trouble dialing, it will allow them to more easily."

The agency is lending its FotoDialer to patrons for one month at a time. Patrons can then buy their own if they like the device. If patrons respond positively to the loan program, the agency will buy several more to loan out, he said.

Though the device wasn't available in time to help his mother, Le said he is glad his invention is helping others like her.

"This phone is really helpful," he said. "There are 100 million people, one third of the United States today that fall into this category -- kids, seniors and disabled people. People who cannot think of the phone number and dial that number. ... The bottom line is we do this to help people do better."

Though his mother could not read or write, she raised eight children, he said.

She was self-taught and spoke five languages -- Thai, Cambodian, Mandarin, Cantonese and Vietnamese.

"She was the calming influence of the family," Le said. "She was the leader. She gave everything up for the family."

The FotoDialer is not his first invention, Le said. He designed products for Motorola for 17 years and has more than 3 dozen patents from that time, most belonging to Motorola.

As a 16-year-old, Le moved to the United States when the North Vietnamese took over Saigon in 1975. He stayed with Albert and Nola Ostraff in Laguna Beach, Calif., until he finished high school. He earned a bachelor's degree in design engineering technology at Brigham Young University.

The FotoDialer is manufactured by SinoTechUSA. Le is the chief technical officer of Lehi-based IntelliSolve.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page D3.