The name of our project comes from Biel, son of the founders and a child who has Low Vision (LV). LV is a condition in which vision is permanently limited and cannot be improved with regular glasses, medicine, or surgery. It is 6 times more common than blindness. The main difference among people with LV and blind people is that people with LV still hold some vision capacity, but not enough to carry on their daily living. There are 217 million people in the world who suffer LV, and it grows with the aging of the population.
Many different diseases or traumas can cause LV, and their effects on vision may differ a lot. These effects cause severe problems in the lives of people who have LV, such as difficulties in recognizing objects or people, reading, watching TV, mobility problems, etc. The interviews we carried out show that mobility problems are the ones that most diminish autonomy of patients. The diseases that usually produce more mobility problems include glaucoma, retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and strokes affecting vision, but other diseases like diabetic retinopathy or macular degeneration can also cause them, totaling more than 7M people in Europe. These people are unable to walk or travel alone, because the risk of injury and accidents (due to difficulties in perceiving obstacles, changes in the ground or steps) and disorientation (dfficulties recognizing street signs and references, reading inability, problems using public transportation and risk of getting lost). This limits social and professional capacities, reducing their world to their homes and nearby surroundings. Mobility problems also impede the practice of simple sports like jogging or trekking. All this limitations lead to isolation, frustration and depression.
Our innovation:
Nevertheless, unlike the completely blind, people with LV still hold remaining vision that, with the adequate adaptations, can be used to improve their mobility. BIEL SMARTGAZE are smart glasses which combine computer vision, artificial intelligence and mixed reality to make the most of their remaining vision. BIEL SMARTGAZE glasses detect obstacles, holes, changes in the ground surface and street signs, and show them in a way the users can perceive with their remaining vision. It includes also other features like zoom, image improvement (definition, contrast), etc., in order to facilitate reading and other tasks, providing a complete solution to improve their mobility, their personal autonomy and quality of life.
Phase 1 objectives:
The purpose of this Feasibility Study is to provide the necessary information to ensure the successful development and commercialization of BIEL SMARGAZE. This study focuses on defining target market and customers, technological validation, regulatory and IP protection strategy, Business model and necessary resources to successfully develop and commercialise the solution.
