Guiding Sounds - Providing independence and safety to the visually impaired in order to navigate the outside world.

by

Carlos Mosquera | Jul 16, 2020 | in Digital change-maker challenge | Digital inclusion

Define three specific objectives that you would like to achieve with your proposal.

• Support the visually impaired community to allow them to have more confidence, feel secure and being more efficient when going out.

• Find an ecosystem where the problem is more prevalent and test the pilot ( NY, schools areas for visually impaired)Find support from the government and private sector for the solution in different ecosystems to implement the solution. 

What problems (particularly in value chain competitiveness and global disruption) are your community’s stakeholders facing due to the Covid-19 pandemic?

COVID-19 has created challenges across the board, affecting each and every one of us.

When it comes to the blind community it is important to identify their previous limitations and understand how COVID-19 has intensified their problems, making them less safe, more reliant on strangers and less confident when navigating the outside world.

As lockdowns spread across the world, there are fewer people on the street to support blind individuals. Moreover, the 2-meter distance rule recommended by the WHO is incredibly difficult for them to follow as they do not know their distance from others and need to constantly ask for support even if just to send a letter.

What minimum viable solution(s) are you proposing to address the challenge(s) in your community?

The current MVS has been already developed. It consists of a small solar-powered speaker and a complementary app. The cost is approximately 20 USD.  This was developed taking into account the current challenges experienced by visually impaired individuals and the available technology. The main challenge is the mass production and implementation in terms of regulations and permits provided by the public sector. Another key collaboration is with the private sector, specifically mobile phones of Google to integrate to their current solutions. Future features will be developed based on user experience and needs.

Based on qualitative interviewing in Paris and California, the main issues that have been identified by visually impaired individuals when navigating outside of their homes are:

• They need to rely on strangers to reach a destination. This not only represents a safety risk but when in an area that has no people they cannot find their way. 

• They often don’t know when to cross streets: For example,  when crossing the street, they don’t know how much time left until the light changes back to red 

• They often can’t find bus stations or know where to get off when riding the bus. For example, they do not know when to get off a bus because oftentimes it doesn’t say the station. These examples vary depending on the accessibility capabilities of a city. 

With the coronavirus, places like Paris have installed facilities such as hand sanitizer points. Blind individuals cannot access those or any other new service without extra help

The detail on the tech:

The speaker has an old, non-expensive and trusted technology that it's already implemented on the streets. The difference is the use. All that's needed is to reproduce a specific sound from those speakers to make them compatible with the app. Speakers can also broadcast useful information both in an audible and inaudible way at the same time (Beacons can't). The app that accompanies the speakers to work,  requires microphone listening that can be also used for any emergency with speech recognition. When comparing to beacons, having BLE and a mic opened on your phone will drain your battery way faster.

The solar-powered panel will keep the battery of the speaker charged. This was the speakers will be fully independent, it's not viable to use battery-only devices as it's not efficient keeping track of power for every speaker. Location data will be provided by the app. This app listens to 3 impulses at 19kHz, this one will display information assigned to those impulses. I hope this makes sense.

Custom speakers will be sold to the city or private clients. The app is complimentary. I don't want the visual impaired to pay for something that should be already provided by your government. Therefore partnerships with government and private sector will be needed.

Share your story (your narrative)

Lorena was born being able to see, but she has something called Leber congenital amaurosis. This is a progressive severe visual impairment, which means that the older she gets the less she can see. She is now over her 20s and almost fully blind, more so in the evenings where she cannot see at all. This has forced her to adapt to a new lifestyle that is full of limitations, many of which people are not aware of.

Lorena has always been fully independent, but as she is going blind she is struggling more and more to keep this independence. She is originally from Venezuela and recently moved to France. Lorena is learning the language and to adapt to the culture which is is hard enough already for any immigrant. Europe has many initiatives to support disabled people, but there is much more to do. When Lorena goes out, she can’t know where the bus stops are, and always need someone to help her. This is one of the many problems she encounters navigating the outside world.

Things get worse when its the evening, and there is no one on the street to help her find her way. Google Maps helps but doesn't give accurate information, making it hard to even cross a street. For people that can see, Google Maps is enough, but not for the visually impaired.

She is having to rely on people, affecting her self esteem, her independence and safety. A simple task for someone that is not blind that would only take minutes (such as sending a letter), can take her hours.

Our solution allows people like Lorena to navigate the world accurately, without compromising on safety nor relying on internet connection.

We have created a system, where speakers deliver a specific frequency to smartphones, sending information packages with accurate information on their current location and proximity to different areas (such as buses).

We hope for a world where people that have disabilities are not limited and their capabilities to perform in society fully embraced and developed. If we want a better economy that is diverse, we need to support every type of diversity including this one. 

I invite you to learn more about what visually impaired people go through to see how you can support them

Please provide any additional relevant information that you would like to share.

I have a background in Sound engineering and over 10 years of experience in the field. This helps me develop my project more efficiently. Additionally, for its development, I have created a partnership with the largest speaker manufacturer in the world.

Your Final Proposal for challenge

yes