With wearable technology crossing over to clothing, a couple of entrepreneurs see an opportunity to make the technology available for blind people as well as gadget addicts by embedding GPS navigation in sneakers. It is part of a broader trend of using mobile technology to improve the quality of life for the blind and visually impaired population in the world.
Lechal, highlighted in a Mashable article this week, has developed “smart shoes” that use Bluetooth technology embedded in the shoe or a removable insole. They generate haptic feedback — vibrations in the insole of either shoe that directs users to go left or right. Users enter their destination into a mobile app on their smartphone and that transmits messages through a device embedded in the shoe or through an insole, based on which way the user needs to go.
Lechal is part of a larger business, Ducere Technologies Pvt. Ltd., founded in 2011 by University of Michigan grad Krispian Lawrence and MIT grad Anirudh Sharma in Secunderabad in India.
Statistics from the World Health Organization’s website indicate that 39 million people are blind and another 285 million are visually impaired worldwide.
Although voice-guided GPS helps many of us get around, the founders deemed it too distracting for a population that relies so much on their hearing to give them a sense of where they are.
As useful as the technology may be, it’s hard to believe that it could replace a cane for obstacles like curbs, buildings and other people. But those are the sort of challenges the company is currently trying to solve by getting feedback from blind users. Prototype models are being tested out at the L.V. Prasad Eye Institute in India.
For each shoe that is purchased, the company will subsidize a pair for the visually impaired, according to gadget website, Didgit.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Another company developing tools for the blind in the mobile space is EYEBRIDGE. Its app uses a rear-facing camera to deliver a video feed to a live assistant to help with navigation or to complete tasks. Another, OrCam Technologies, developed a camera that attaches to glasses that read what users point to and identify objects through audio text.
