Envision Smart Glasses Can Read Documents & Recognize People
March 16, 2022Most of our breakthrough technology is centered around mainstream consumers. As a result, people with disabilities usually have to wait until the relevant tech is funneled down to them. Well, this is no longer the case for the visually impaired. Envision’s pair of AI powered smart glasses, revealed at SCUN 2022, aims to improve the quality of life for the blind and visually impaired.
These glasses are built on the enterprise platform of Google Glass and as such, bring a whole host of features to the consumer. The device functions as a pair of eyes, and has the ability to scan what’s directly in front of the user, understand what it sees, then describes it aloud.
The improved glasses we see today have Optical Character Recognition (OCR), improved text reading with contextual intelligence, the addition of new languages, and the creation of a third-party app ecosystem. The latter allows integration with third-party services, which could include indoor and outdoor navigation.
First introduced in 2020, the company says that the device has helped improve the lives of blind and visually impaired users thanks to its AI system. It is able to extract information from images it takes, then reads it aloud, granting people who are visually impaired the ability to read regular documents at work, recognize friends, find personal belongings and use public transportation.
Technical Specifications:
SoC:
Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1
OS:
Android Open Source Project 8.1 (Oreo)
Memory / Storage:
3GB LPDDR4
32GB eMMC Flash
Wi-Fi:
IEEE 802.11a/g/b/n/ac, dual-band
Bluetooth:
Bluetooth 5.0
Camera:
8 Megapixel color sensor
83° diagonal field of view
f/2.4 aperture
Fixed focus, best focus at 0.6m
Up to 1080p30 video
Display:
640 pixel x 360 pixel RGB
Audio out:
Mono Speaker
USB audio
Bluetooth (HFP supported)
Microphones:
3 near field beam-forming microphones
Touch:
Multi-touch gesture touchpad
Charging / Data:
USB PD 2.0 compliant (fast charge up to 1.5 A @ 5 V)
USB 2.0 data transfer
USB-C compliant connector
LED:
Privacy (camera) green LED, power (rear) white LED
Battery:
800 mA⋅h (2880 C)
Inertial Sensors:
3-axis Accelerometer
3-axis Gyroscope
3-axis Magnetometer
Materials:
Resin nylon (pod)
Ruggedization:
IP53 (Resistant to water spray and limited dust ingression)
Weight without frame:
46 g
Dimensions without frame:
212 mm x 57 mm x 29 mm (unfolded)
182 mm x 55 mm x 29 mm (folded)
Envision is also available as an iOS and Android app, but is also useful as a pair of “reading” glasses. It can detect and translate digital or handwritten text from any surface and read it aloud in 60 different languages. But this pales in comparison to its ability to recognize faces, objects, colors and scenes. The glasses can then describe this to the user.
Users can also use it to make secure video calls via the Ally function, which makes it a useful tool to people who are visually impaired. The following is the list of improvements that have been made:
Document Guidance for Accurate Capture – Removes the frustrations of taking multiple images to fully capture a document’s complete text. Enhanced document guidance provides verbal instructions to guide users to position documents to the optimal scanning position allowing capture in a single motion.
Layout detection – it can read column-based documents such as newspapers, posters, road signs and restaurant menus, which include captions and headers.
Enhanced Offline Language Capabilities – It can understand and read aloud in 60 different languages. The offline feature allows whatever it captures to be read offline at any time.
Third Party App Support – Envision supports a third-party ecosystem that allows developers to create services that tie into the platform. Thanks to the integration with the Cash Reader app, Envision can recognize banknotes in over 100 currencies.
Ally – It allows users to ask for assistance or call trusted contacts via mobile network or Wir WiFi.
Optimizing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) – By using millions of data points, the Envision Glasses improve image capture and interpretation accuracy. It’s available to purchase at a price of $3,500 directly from Envision’s website and its global distributor network.
