Tag: Vision

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Technology

Funding Boost for A.I powered app and Smart Glasses

Envision App being used to read a menu card

Envision recently secured €1.5 Million to scale their award-winning AI powered app and smart glasses solutions for the blind and visually impaired.

The investment round includes 3 impact funds – Existing investor 4impact is joined by ABN AMRO and Hungary based Impact Ventures, along with strategic investors from Operator.Exchange. Funding will be used to accelerate growth to support as many blind and visually impaired people globally.

Envision is the award-winning AI-assistive technology company that empowers blind and visually impaired people with greater independence and access to the visual information around them. Their AI-powered software extracts different types of information from images and speaks them out loud, enabling blind and low-vision users to read documents at work, recognize their friends, find personal belongings at home, use public transportation, and more — all fully independently.

AI-assistive software can read all kinds of text, including digital and handwritten text, newspaper, books and product labels, in more than 60 languages, recognize faces, describe scenes, detect colors, find objects, and so much more. Envision’s software is available for use in two different ways: on assistive smart glasses as embedded, hands-free technology (currently in partnership with Google Glass with an ability to add different smart glasses in future), and as an iOS and Android smartphone app. Their products are currently being used in more than 200 countries and the Company is adding new distributors in all corners of the world on a monthly basis. Their products are designed together with and for the blind and visually impaired to optimise user experience.
Person using envision to read vinyl album cover
Instant Text- Envision Glasses Photo @Envision
Envision will use the funds to scale-up their team in the Hague to support their plans of making their products available all over the world. They will expand their R&D team to further develop and improve their cutting edge AI and make more meaningful visual information accessible to the blind and visually impaired. There is also going to be an increase in marketing activities to further enhance the sales of the app and the glasses through a network of distributors around the world. Karthik Mahadevan, the co-founder and CEO, said “We are excited to enter into this new phase where we can accelerate our mission of making all kinds of visual information accessible to everyone. We are just at the beginning of what is possible and the new partners and resources have now provided us with fuel to launch this product to its full potential.”

Envision Glasses enable the wearer to utilise the following features

  • Turn any text into speech with Scan Text. Be it handwritten notes, books or your favourite recipes. In over 60 languages.
  • Call someone you trust to share your point of view, with Video Call. For a second opinion while shopping or exploring a new path.
  • Read any short text that’s in front of you with Instant Text. Find everything from house numbers, the products you love or even your favourite vinyl.
  • Get detailed scene descriptions anywhere. So you know what’s around, every step of the way. Find your colleagues or friends in  an instant, with Face Recognition.
  • Find missing items in no time with Object Recognition
  • Sort laundry easily with Color Detection
  • Dive into that book you want to read with Batch Scan
  • Share the information you come across with Export Text 
Envision glasses currently retail for € 3268.91 (incl taxes) and come in both a standard Titanium Lense free frame or Smith Optics  Designer Spectacles you can replace with custom prescription lenses.

 

 

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Communication

Henry Regains Independence After Losing Vision to Rare Disease

Henry using Orcam Eye at work
Photo courtesy of Orcam

For Henry Arguello of Florida, who works as a home improvement retailer at Home Depot, life after losing vision required changing his habits and lifestyle. But that does not mean that he is not being able to perform his tasks at work all by himself.

At the age of 32, Henry started losing vision to Stargardt disease, an inherited form of macular degeneration that affects younger people. The reason Henry is able to perform his tasks independently at work and at home is thanks to the revolutionary assistive technology device, OrCam MyEye.

Before he started using the OrCam MyEye, Henry constantly struggled with reading small print, whether it was text messages displayed on the screen of his mobile phone, or on everyday items and packages where text provides information about the ingredients of food and cleaning products.

 

While working at Home Depot, Henry is responsible for receiving inventory, then sorting it out, and stocking it on shelves. He is also required to ensure that all of the deliveries that come into the store are the right ones, in the right quantities and measurements. As Henry’s low vision progressed and he started losing vision, his attempts to read the products’ names and details became extremely difficult for him. In order to improve his lifestyle and the way he is coping with low vision in his everyday life, Henry joined the Job Readiness Program for the Blind and Visually Impaired led by the Miami Lighthouse. The instructors, most of whom are blind themselves, helped Henry gain the confidence he needed, as well as teaching him new skills that help people with low vision increase their daily independence. In addition, they taught him how to utilize the newest technology to maintain and to lead a fulfilling career regardless of his condition. While attending a Low Vision Course at the Miami Lighthouse, John, the store manager at the Lighthouse shop, told Henry about the OrCam MyEye. John knew Henry worked at Home Depot and believed he could benefit from using the device.
Henry reading box with Orcam Eye

After receiving training with the OrCam MyEye device, Henry quickly realized how easy it is to use it is and saw the daily benefits that using it can provide him. Thanks to the OrCam MyEye, he is able to easily identify the products and stock them on the correct shelf with complete accuracy. Henry can now help customers find their items by using the OrCam MyEye to read the barcodes of any product. He can also use the device to read the prices to customers, and even have the device read the product description out loud to any customer he is providing service to.

The OrCam MyEye does not require internet connection, so Henry never has to worry that the device won’t work inside the store or anywhere else where internet connection is limited. Henry is now able to complete daily tasks on his own, faster and better.

OrCam has also improved Henry’s life after losing vision in more ways than just being able to work independently. Henry uses the OrCam MyEye to read his text messages and the articles he is interested in on his mobile phone. While going out shopping on his own, he is able to easily identify the products and read the ingredients on his own. He is also able to recognize money bills while paying at the checkout counter with his device.

Henry says about life with OrCam that “Without the OrCam I would not be able to do my job to the best I can. It helps me succeed every day.”

Story replicated with permission from Orcam

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