A Bay Area company believes a little glass and some cutting-edge technology could offer a new kind of world view to visually impaired people.
Kevin Chao of Oakland, who’s been blind since the age of 14, helped AGIGA, a Silicon Valley-based startup, design the EchoVision glasses. The black-framed glasses, complete with Bluetooth, speakers, a microphone, voice control and cameras, are designed to create more access for those who can’t see.
“It basically converts the visual information that people see through the camera and then converts into audio that a blind person can hear,” Chao said.
With the touch of a button, the glasses produce live assistance to describe what’s in front of a person. They also read text, recognize emotions, use facial recognition and come with hands-free remote assistance to help with tasks like transit directions.
“It’s really about bringing back that independence, that sense of power, that sense of control, and the ability to have access to information in your world to decide and choose what you want to do,” Chao said.
The East Bay Center for the Blind believes the technology could enhance the life of blind people and the low-vision community, bringing added visual accessibility in a discreet way.
“Life enhancing means that we have more choices and that we can make our own decisions more easily because we’ve got the data,” East Bay Center for the Blind Executive Director Mike Cole said. “It could certainly help us to live more independently and self-reliantly.”
AGIGA plans to start shipping its first preorders by the end of the month.
Source: NBC Bay Area
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