2 Indians in United Arab Emirates develop app to help visually impaired

Dubai, September 12

Two UAE-based Indian nationals developed a smartphone app that can help visually impaired people.

The app developed by Nandujit Prathap and Visakh GS is called Ioptyc. It uses distance sensors and visual recognition technology to assist people with visual impairments, the Khaleej Times reported on Wednesday.

The project which has two parts, the smartphone app and a special glove, was one of the winning projects in the Ma’an Social Incubator programme of Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, that aims to support people of determination.

“Ioptyc utilises the power of Google Tensorflow Lite for visual recognition of objects in front of the user, who may be visually impaired,” Prathap told Khaleej Times.

“Once the object in front of the person is detected, the app sends an alert and announces the name of the object over the user’s headphone, with the help of Google natural languages package,” he explained.

The glove, on the other hand, notifies the user through vibrations from the buzzer.

“The glove’s sensors are capable of detecting objects as far as two metres away, and the intensity of vibrations varies depending on how far the object is from the user.”

For Prathap and Visakh, what started as a concept will soon be an actual product that can help those who need it most.

As one of the social incubator winners, they will receive 200,000 dirhams in funds, along with training, mentorship and business development. IANS