A 25-year-old Turkish Software developer has invented special glasses, named “assistant glasses,” that help visually impaired people to “recognize” people or “identify” objects.
Graduated from the U.S. Brown College, Melis Gökalp, who is working in an international digital health systems company, had written the software of the assistant glasses between 2019 and 2021.
How does the assistant glasses work?
According to Gökalp, the glasses work with a camera on top of them and a headset, which are both connected to a computer system.
The glasses tell the name of an approaching person or the location of an object to the blind via headphones.
“With the help of the sensors, the glasses identify and announces the objects surrounding the visually impaired person,” Gökalp said.
What are some of the features of the glasses?
The user can ask the glasses to find the location of an object. For example, the user may say, ‘Where are my keys?’ Then the glasses will monitor the surrounding area, detect the location of the keys, and communicate with the user. The system may tell the colours of all objects the user may ask about.
What are the plans for the assistant glasses?
The company she is working for has produced six prototypes of the glasses and they are all in clinical trials at the Rhode Island Veterans Hospital in the U.S.
