Blog
Team Social Xleration, 22nd August 2023
A report by the National Programme for Control of Blindness (NPCB) reveals that 12 million people suffer from visual impairment in India. They make up the one-third population of the global population of 39 million who suffer from vision impairment. Owing to their condition, they struggle when it comes to education, healthcare, and employment. So, a range of assistive technologies has come up to make their life easier. It is important to make these technologies accessible to them so that they function better in their day-to-day lives. Let us look at a few of such notable technologies.
Saarthi: It is a device that helps visionless and low-vision people move safely. Ahmedabad-based start-up torch-it Electronics is the brain behind this invention and it claims that Saarthi has 99.7 percent accuracy in detecting obstacles and providing navigation support. The company states that it can be used as a handheld device or mounted on a cane. Thus, helps sightless and low vision users move around assuredly without having to worry about bumping into obstacles and getting hurt. Users have an option of setting the device at three different ranges of 2 feet, 4 feet, and up to 8 feet. What sets the product apart according to torch-it Electronics is its affordability and its ease of use. Since it is lighter than other similar products, the users find it easier to use with a comfortable grip.
Divya Nayan: Contributing to the cause of making reading accessible for the visually impaired, the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research-Central Scientific Instruments Organisation, Chandigarh (CSIR-CSIO) have come up with a personal reading machine for them. Divya Nayan enables the visually challenged to read the printed or electronic text without any help for anyone else to do so. This device is particularly helpful for the purpose of education and employment. It scans documents and converts them to speech, thus providing a smooth and convenient reading experience. This portable and wireless device supports Hindi and English but can be configured for other Indian and foreign languages as well. Light in weight, Divya Nayan, has internal storage, wireless communication features, and a rechargeable battery. The developers state that the device generated a good response during trials which points to a high demand for such a multifunctional reading machine.
Goggles For The Blind (G4B): Developed by a youngster from Arunachal Pradesh named Anang, G4B allows visionless people to move around independently and hands-free. The device is built on the technique of echolocation, which is used by bats in which they emit ultra-frequency sounds and determine the position of the nearby objects by calculating the duration it takes for the echo generated from their sounds to return from the nearby objects. The device is fitted with ultrasound sensors on each eyeglass and an infrared sensor in the center. The device uses vibration sensors that are sourced from old mobile phones to create a vibration that helps detect obstacles. Developed from discarded materials, G4B uses an open-source microcontroller. The invention caught the eye of UNICEF which asked him to develop a few more prototypes with the aim to make it lighter. He was also recognized by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF) for this creation.
Roshni App: Another useful product for the sightless is the Roshni app that has been put together by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ropar, which helps them identify currency notes. The app recognizes both old and new notes. It provides audio information to the user of the app on the currency note the person is holding. It can be downloaded free of cost in the Google Play Store.
The above assistive technologies along with many others for visually impaired people are making a huge difference in various facets of their lives ranging from navigation, to reading to identifying currency notes. With more research and advancement in this area, we can expect more useful solutions to see the light of day. This would make their lives much less complicated throwing open opportunities to various useful functions accessing which were hitherto inaccessible for them.