Our Project Portfolio
MobiAssist
Visually impaired persons face several challenges while navigating in their daily lives. Many of them are forced to rely on family members or care givers to perform daily functions such as walking, identifying obstacles, operating doors, and appliances etc. The problem of navigation involves knowing their exact location, planning a path to their destination, detecting obstacles along the way, avoiding collisions and adapting to a changing environment.
The MobiAssist is an assistive device designed for persons living with a severe visual impairment to navigate independently without the use of their cane. It utilizes a sensor array and microcontroller board together with the computing power of the user’s mobile device to detect the presence of obstacles within their environment, mapping out a 10ft x 10ft space to the front and sides of the user and up to the height of the user. This information is then processed by the MobiAssist’s operating system software in real time to provide feedback to the user about obstacles in their way and is communicated to the user in the form of audible speech commands and tactile vibrations.
Blind Way Forward
We live in a highly visual world, in which we are constantly bombarded with visual information, from billboards to electronic media to simply going about your daily routine. It is therefore not surprising that the loss of vision, whether it is sudden, as in an accident, or gradual, through degenerative conditions such as glaucoma, can leave you wondering how you will cope.
The Blind Way Forward is a practical guide to coping and thriving with visual impairment. The organization focuses on serving several populations:
1) adults who have recently received a diagnosis or prognosis of blindness or acute visual impairment,
2) persons already living with vision impairment but who have been limited due to a lack of information, or who have become disillusioned,
3)the families, friends, and employers of persons with visual impairment, and
4) allies or other interested parties.
Empowered
With more than one billion people in the world living with disabilities, it’s vital that technology reflects the diversity of the users to foster digital inclusion for all. There are at least 50 million disabled people in Latin America & the Caribbean (LAC) or approximately, 10 percent of the region’s population. About 80-90 percent of disabled people in LAC are unemployed or outside the workforce. Most of those who have jobs receive little or no monetary remuneration.
In addition, technologies such as the internet, software and apps, mobile devices and services, television, and emerging ICTs have significantly improved the inclusion of persons with disabilities in all aspects of society; however, the current situation in the LAC region is that persons with disabilities are at risk of being excluded from digital technologies and the opportunities they afford.
The Empowered virtual platform seeks to change this paradigm by enabling persons with disabilities to offer products and services online to employers and businesses. It will create opportunities for persons with disabilities to access employment and service provider contracts in the growing digital economy.
Smartphone Workshops
Acting Corporal Marlon Parieaho, the country’s only completely blind active-duty police officer, has been blind for over 6 years, and conducted the training for iPhone users. Parieaho indicated that the features and apps were very important and a blind or visually impaired person must be competent with the assistive technology to be effective in the workplace.
“After I lost my sight I thought I had to leave my job. However, I learned that with the help of technology I can still do so much on my own and became more independent. If I had not become adept at computer and smartphone technology, I would not be able to continue working as a police officer.”
Parieaho continued, “With assistive technology visually impaired persons can have very fulfilling personal and productive lives. I’m a strong advocate of employment of persons with visual impairment because we can make a strong contribution to society and the economy.”
