.lumen is a research startup that builds glasses that empower the blind to live a better life. There are 40 million blind people today, and despite all the technological advancements, the most used mobility solutions are still the walking cane and the guide dog.
The guide dog is unanimously seen as a good option, but it has a few drawbacks. It costs between $30-$60K to train a single guide dog – and it can be a big responsibility for a blind person to provide care for such a companion.
Because of this, there are only 28,000 guide dogs to 40 million individuals with visual disabilities.
.lumen offers a solution that mimics the benefits of a guide dog without the drawbacks that make it a non-scalable solution. Using the latest in autonomous driving, artificial intelligence and robotics, .lumen behaves like a virtual guide dog in the form of a headset. Once the user puts it on, they become capable of acknowledging their position and movements in 3D; they understand where they are and how they can interact with the environment around them. You can, for example, ask the headset to take you to a specific point of interest or to bring you home, and they will do so. Rather than pulling your hand, as a guide dog does, the .lumen system guides you by “pulling” your head. The system offers relevant information to its user through an intuitive haptics and auditory feedback mechanism.
The objective of the project is to achieve the following milestones:
- Demonstrate the system prototype in an operational environment
- Complete and qualify the system
- Deliver the .lumen device to the first clients
