According to the World Blind Union, there is over 285 million people around the world affected by blindness It is promising to think that we are at a stage in development where 4 out of 5 cases of blindness are preventable or curable, with the other fifth of those cases likely being curable in the near future.
Just recently posted! A YouTube video by Javier Davalos, whose new HoloLens application uses spatial mapping, spatial understanding, and ray casting to produce sound for a blind user to hear as they navigate their surroundings.
The HoloLens application can be used by those with low vision or no vision, and provides the user with tones and volume based on the distance and angle of the surface to warn them of potential walls or hazards. A wall, floor and even an incline such as a ramp generate different types of tones to tell the user where they can navigate and with a verbal command the user can also receive exact distances via speech from the application.
Various sounds can allow the user to tell if they are walking toward stairs and can even count the stairs using those combination of sounds.
Davalos, a game developer says in his YouTube video that he is currently looking for blind individuals to test the application. Davalos also will be releasing this application to the HoloLens store.
