Dr Shroff’s Eye Hospital Unveils Smart Vision Glasses 3.0 To Assist The Visually Impaired
On Thursday, Dr Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital, in association with Vision Aid India and Bengaluru-based startup SHG Technologies unveiled the third generation of Smart Vision Glasses, providing new hope to the visually impaired and blind.
The wearable device incorporates artificial intelligence, machine vision, and machine learning to create a more interactive, interesting, and independent world for those with visual impairments. At the launch event, 20 blind and visually impaired individuals were provided the latest Smart Vision Glasses.
The latest version is lightweight and features an improved camera, sensor, and AI/ML technology, making it even more effective in assisting users. The glasses project images, provide walking assistance, and include face recognition capabilities, accompanied by a smart earpiece that reads and understands, and relays information to the wearer. Additional features include voice assistance and GPS navigation, making them an essential tool for visually impaired patients to navigate and avoid obstacles.
Dr Umang Mathur, CEO of Dr Shroff’s Charity Eye Hospital told BW Healthcare World, that "Its an evolving technology, when one wants to read a text it's pretty useful. And all its features including navigation are getting better as its newer versions are coming out. So it will be very useful going forward for the visually impaired."
Ramu Muthangi, CEO and CO-Founder, SHG Technologies while speaking with BW Healthcare World said that while technologies like OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and AI, ML have been around for decades his firm has gone beyond that. He spoke of an Israel based company OrCam which sells the same technology but at a very higher price.
Muthangi said that "OrCam initially brought a face detector and a camera to see things around. We have gone beyond that. We have added the walking assistant which works on a radar mechanism that makes one aware of the objects or obstacles around them and lets them know a clear way they can take. We are also supporting all the Indian languages that helps in reading various texts. And then we also have a button which, after one presses it, sends one’s location to their loved ones in three seconds if one is in distress or in a difficult situation."
Speaking on the price of the device, he revealed that the MRP is 48,000 but the firm also has a preferential pricing model where its sells for a lower price to NGOs. The firm has about 1500 users as of now and has patented the technology.
The Blind Population Of India
The launch of the Smart Vision Glasses comes at a time when the number of visually impaired and blind patients in India is on the rise. According to the World Health Organization, there are currently an estimated 15 million blind people in India, and another 135 million people with some form of visual impairment. With an aim to address this concern, the new and more advanced Smart Vision Glasses will transform the lives of visually impaired and blind patients, allowing them to lead more independent and fulfilling lives.
Speaking on the issues that blind people face in India Dr Mathur says that while the treatments and medicine has advanced enormously, the rehabilitation of blind people still remains a big challenge in India. Most clinicians he says are not equipped to handle patients who cannot be helped from a surgery or the medicine.
"Most clinicians are not equipped to handle that situation which may include preparing that person mentally and then giving them the right direction as rehabilitation is very specialized and somebody has to work with the patients and tell them these are the technologies that are available which can help them but the clinicians themselves are not aware of it," he added.
On being asked why this awareness is not there at clinicians end, Dr Mathur stated that the training or the knowledge on rehabilitation does not come in the curriculum and is not taught to the medical students adding that even in medical conferences the focus is only treatment and teaching its skills and there is little interests for topics like rehab. He stated that ophthalmologists can play big role in building awareness and providing guidance to the patients on how best live their lives.
Speaking on the role and efforts of government in this area, Dr Mathur said that "At the school level, there's a talk of integrated, inclusive education that instead of making blind kids studying in schools for the blind, they should study in regular schools. But the practical problem is that you find them when they are 10 years old, and an 10 year old who hasn't studied at all? How do you get them into kindergarten? Those systems don't exist. So, it requires a lot of work presently."
