The mobility assistant for the blind and visually impaired

Informations projet

Lazzus

N° de convention de subvention: 833513

DOI

10.3030/833513

Projet clôturé

Date de signature de la CE 4 Decembre 2018

Date de début 1 Janvier 2019

Date de fin 30 Juin 2019

Financé au titre de

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Coût total

€ 71 429,00

Contribution de l’UE

€ 50 000,00

Coordonné par

NUEVO SENTIDO TECNOLOGICO REALIDAD AUMENTADA SOCIEDAD LIMITADA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Lazzus (The mobility assistant for the blind and visually impaired)

Période du rapport: 2019-01-01 au 2019-06-30

Résumé du contexte et des objectifs généraux du projet

According to the World Health Organization, almost 4% of the world population is visually impaired. Several applications provide mobility services them, but they are mostly positioning systems helping the users to move from one point to another, without acknowledging the surrounding environment along the way. With Lazzus, we propose to generate contextual awareness by transmitting audible information about points of interest close to the user's position at each moment, enabling exploration of the environment within an artificial field of vision dynamically provided by the app according to the user’s location and information needs.

Along this study, we tried to determine the profitability of our mobility assistant as a business and if our idea is scalable, while testing our initial hypothesis that following Lazzus development and commercialisation road-map would boost the growth of our small and its chances of international success.

Lazzus has been tested on relevant international markets spanning over two dozen countries. We ran market tests based on two service modalities. We conducted a deep market research looking into the market size, both in volume and in value, going deeper into the demographics and the segmentation of reachable users and their specific needs, sizing up the competition, unveiling triggers and selling points, and assessing the economic environment in terms of entry barriers and regulation.

The brand Lazzus has achieved a singular position in the market and a good reputation derived from several awards received. However, the overall conclusions of the study point to negative results because the volume of the objective market turned out to be lower than initially assumed, also due to unforeseen technological and commercial barriers very difficult to overcome.

Our study came out with a strategy for managing the decline stage in the life-cycle of Lazzus, and a balanced exit strategy for our investors, commercial partners, customers and end-users.

Travail effectué depuis le début du projet jusqu’à la fin de la période considérée dans le rapport et principaux résultats atteints jusqu’à présent

Neosentec tryed to determine the profitability of our assistant as a business and its scalability.

Lazzus has been tested on relevant international markets spanning over two dozen countries, including USA, several Central and South American Countries and many EU countries. We ran market tests based on two service modalities articulating one offer with the potential to increase autonomy and expand live experiences for thousands of blind and visual impaired persons.Appropriate engagement is the key to reach significative market penetration and essential for delivering sustainable competitive advantage, lowering risk for investors, and increasing confidence among commercial partners. We devoted a part of this study to conduct a deep market research looking into the market size, both in volume and in value, going deeper into the demographics and the segmentation of reachable users and their needs, sizing up the competition, unveiling triggers and selling points, and assessing the economic environment in terms of entry barriers and regulation.

During the execution of this study on the feasibility of Lazzus, we have detected several problems in terms of competition, market, and business model and scalability, which, together with limitations that we were already confronting in relation to the technology, the size of the team and the size of the market, lead to the conclusion that the business project is not viable.

The key issues are the following:
• Market size: While it remains a fact that the number of visually impaired people is very high, our solution has only proved to be truly attractive for people who are completely blind or have a very high visual disability. This significantly reduces our market size. Furthermore, we have verified that our target market is only a small fraction of said market, made up of a minority of people with severe visual impairment who are especially skilled in handling intelligent communication devices. The volume of a realistically reachable market resulting from this analysis does not match to our expectations to boost the growth of our small company and its chances of success in Spanish and international markets base upon further development of this business idea.
• Technology limitation: GPS accuracy failures impede Lazzus from providing a truly satisfying user experience. The European Global Navigation Satellite System, Galileo, which would enable Lazzus to solve this problem, is not fully operational yet.
• Google has modified its Maps and Places technology, including a significant change in the prices of services required for Lazzus operation, which has been multiplied by almost four. Lazzus depends on these services to operate. Such an important increase in our operational cost will result in a decrease of our customer base.
• Our competitor Lazarillo, based in Chile, and operating with a non-scalable free model, is improving its application at a very good rate. We believe that in a few months they could equal us or even surpass us.

Neosentec, owner the Lazzus brand and its technology, has decided to transfer these assets to a company specialized in provision of tiflotechnic mobility services, and to focus our own resources on enabling a sale in the short / medium term that allows to recover the investment.

The decision to abandon the initial business plan has been explained.

Progrès au-delà de l’état des connaissances et impact potentiel prévu (y compris l’impact socio-économique et les conséquences sociétales plus larges du projet jusqu’à présent)

"A person with visual disability faces innumerable day to day challenges. If you cannot see what’s around you, you are not part of your environment and you have limited information that ends up in fear of the unknown and isolation. But, now imagine that a voice accompanies you, indicating relevant information about everything that surrounds you. So, you could be walking and when pointing to your right, you could hear: “Pedestrian crossing"", then walk a few meters and towards your left, hear ""Commerce: bakery"". Thanks to Lazzus, a person with visual impairment can now experience an unimaginable feeling of discovering new places through a smartphone as it was a flashlight and breaking all fear barriers.

There are several applications that try to cover aspects of mobility for the blind and impaired people, but they are only GPS adapted and only solve the transfer from one point to another. They are not ready to live in the environment that surrounds them. Also, there are key technological challenges that we are addressing:
1. GPS Accuracy: We have optimized our system to the maximum level to provide the highest accuracy, resulting in a maximum error of 3 to 5 meters.
2. Lack of knowledge: We estimate that only the 15% of the visually impaired handle apps on their Smartphone. Therefore, there is a large market size which are not familiar with apps.
3. Hands-free: The app requires the user to carry the phone in his hand, which might be a problem, since they are already carrying a cane or a guide dog in the other hand. Having both hands busy, generates insecurity to them. We are developing a wearable solution to be independent from the smartphone to solve this issue.

Our social impact means to change the way thousands of people see the world, allowing new experiences to interact with the environment. This will increase their autonomy, their power to break down barriers and reduce the fear of the unknown. It will also be a support tool for family and friends. Lazzus, in short, aims to be an aid for the orientation and mobility of users with visual disabilities.
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