A mother of 17-year-old twins who have a rare genetic condition, diagnosed when they were babies, which impacts their sight has designed new ‘virtual reality’ software to let parents see life through their children’s eyes.
Sara McCracken formed social enterprise Empatheyes at Innovation Factory in West Belfast to produce a unique new system combining state of the art software with the latest virtual reality technology to replicate an individual’s exact visual impairment.
The idea and passion came about when Sara, CEO and founder of charity Angel Eyes NI, which supports blind and partially sighted children, began searching for a product that would let parents understand how their children see the world to help them advocate on behalf of their children and secure the right services.
How does it work?
The system, which provides 360-degree immersion with built-in eye tracking can be specifically calibrated to recreate more than 30 eye conditions in a variety of settings such as a school classroom, a busy street, bus or play park.
She set about putting a team together to develop the product, including clinical lead Professor Jonathan Jackson, head of optometry at the Royal Victoria Hospital and technology lead Dr Alec Kingsnorth, an optometry expert and software developer who has worked at Aston University in Birmingham.
Ulster University’s Professor of Optometry and Vision Science Kathryn Saunders has also joined the social enterprise as clinical lead trainer.
How does this VR headset benefit the user?
By simply putting this headset on, it can demonstrate to parents, carers, teachers and others how the world looks to each visually impaired person so they can fully understand how to make the best adaptations.
When is it available?
After trialling the product with professionals and carers, it was successfully launched in the UK and Ireland in 2022.
Empatheyes, which recently won a Tech for Good award from Digital DNA, will now be unveiled to an international audience at Vision 2023, a major conference in Denver that brings together professionals and researchers from around the world to share ideas and learn from each other to improve the lives of people with visual impairment or blindness.
The profits of the social enterprise Empatheyes will help to fund the services of Angel Eyes NI to support families and children with a vision impairment.
The organization now is located at Innovation Factory and has been supported by the team there.
Innovation Factory is owned by Belfast City Council and operated on its behalf by Oxford Innovation Space. The £9.1m business hub was funded by Belfast City Council and Invest NI with support from the European Regional Development Fund.
