Braille has been the long-standing method for the visually-impaired populace to read and get around in this world. For more than two centuries, braille has empowered many.
However, those who have not been exposed to braille, continue to be restricted by their impairment and often remain unemployed.
Well, this innovation by an Indian scientist happens to be the world’s first intelligent wearable virtual assistant. This could effectively open the doors to those among the visually-impaired who have had no luck with braille.
Combining vision intelligence and the internet of things in the form of a wearable, Roopam’s startup Manovue is effectively the world’s first intelligent personal assistant system for the visually impaired.
The initiative makes the world accessible for the visually impaired by simply letting the user point a finger towards any printed or digital texts, before reading the text aloud.
It eliminates the need for braille to decipher a printed text and instead uses artificial intelligence to help the visually impaired read.
The innovator, 23-year old Roopam Sharma, won the World Health Summit Start-up Award for this innovation, reports The Indian Express. Awarded at an annual event of the health summit in Berlin, Roopam also holds other awards and recognitions and is also listed in the UNESCO Youth Forum and Innovators under 39.
Moreover, he has been awarded the Microsoft Imagine Cup 2015 and Yahoo Accenture Innovation Jockeys, Season 4.
Roopam is an engineering alumnus of Haryana’s Manav Rachna University and was conferred the National Youth Award by the President of India in January this year.
The UNESCO Youth Forum quotes Roopam, “Manovue basically functions as a wearable glove and integrated mobile phone app, which enables the user to read any printed text by moving his/her finger over the text.”
