May 13, 2016 | By Benedict
Parsee, a Polish non-profit organization, has designed a pair of 3D printed Smart Glasses for blind and visually impaired people. The technology, currently the subject of an Indiegogo campaign, uses text, face, shape, and color recognition to provide audio information to the wearer via a headphone.
Around 314 million people around the world are either blind or visually impaired. And although life might be easier for those people than it would have been a hundred years ago, having no sight is still one of the biggest setbacks one can receive. Because of this, a group of Polish volunteers, who together comprise nonprofit organization Parsee, decided to create a free, easily obtainable piece of wearable technology that could significantly improve the lives of blind and visually impaired people.
Parsee decided that a pair of 3D printed, high-tech smart glasses could function as a versatile aid for blind and visually impaired people. Smart glasses already exist, but—being fairly complex pieces of consumer tech—they tend to come with a hefty price tag. Moreover, most of them aren’t specifically designed to improve the sensory experience of blind people—they can be used as mobile computers for a number of applications, but few developers of smart glasses have devoted significant time and effort into making smart glasses a tool for disabled people.
Seeing an opportunity to create a life-changing product, Parsee created their own smart glasses, consisting of a simple 3D printed frame, rechargeable battery, IP camera, and headphone. All wearers need to do is don the frames, then hit the photo button when encountering real-world objects or sections of text. The frames will then communicate with a connected mobile device via a special hotspot, which sends audio information back to the frames in order to identify text, color, shapes, and faces. A video demonstration of the 3D printed smart glasses shows them accurately identifying household objects, colors, and extended passages of printed text.
The ultimate goal of Parsee is to give away the 3D printed glasses for free, so the Indiegogo rewards system is a little different compared to most. For $300, backers can nominate a blind or visually impaired person to receive a pair of Parsee smart glasses, while other levels of donation be given for rewards such as t-shirts ($50) and a chance to become part of the Parsee team ($50,000). Parsee will use all funds raised to further develop its prototype, before producing as many units as possible to distribute for free.
Parsee has set a goal of $25,000 for its Indiegogo campaign, but will work with whatever funds it can raise to take the project as far as it can go. 3D printing is used to create all sorts of medical devices, but Parsee seems to have hit upon a particularly promising product with its smart glasses for the blind. "It helps (the blind and visually impaired) in their everyday living like reading newspapers, drinking juice…” said Parsee sales and project manager Bartosz Trzcinski.
Posted in 3D Printing Application
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Hi, first of all, I would like to congratulate the team behind this success which is going to be the greatest gift for the blind people and their friends and relatives. I would like to know more about this for my mother, she lost her eyesight 26 years back. She was a school teacher and after her retirement she gradually started loosing her eye sight and within a year my mum lost her eye sight completely. Since then we have been in touch with all possible doors but sadly, nothing could work out for her. Doctors had two different opinions: one was that my mum is suffering from Retinitis Pigmentosa and second was Rodcone Distrophy. We are very much excited about the news of Smart glasses by Parsee, its our kind request if you could let us know more about this. Awaiting for some good news from you, Regards, Laurence Pellissery, UK. Email: lorence61@yahoo.com
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