A Disruptive Technology for Visually Impaired
In a recent Cocktail Investing podcast with Audi regardings the company’s autonomous car initiative, Audi Government Affairs executive Brad Stertz mentioned that one of the demand-drivers for the technology will be the handicapped. In particular, Brad mentioned the visually impaired and how their economic productivity is significantly hampered because of their difficulty in getting to work.
Just recently, while waiting in the lobby for a meeting with a company, we saw a blind man utilizing this new technology from AIRA, which pairs Google Glass technology with a mobile app that connects to an agent that helped him navigate the busy streets of Washington DC. Here is a recent story about how the technology is being offered at the Memphis Airport:
Mike Hingson doesn’t want to be stuck in a wheelchair as part of an airport’s accommodation for the blind and visually impaired. He walked out of the World Trade Center on his own on Sept. 11, 2001, and “I really don’t need to be in a wheelchair simply because I’m blind. It happens all the time at airports.”Wearing smart glasses and communicating with a guide via mobile phone, Hingson flew to Memphis from Dallas Wednesday and navigated Memphis International Airport as easily as his sighted fellow travelers.Memphis Internationally Airport rolls out free access to AIRA, a subscription-based technology that uses smart glasses, mobile phones and a network of concierges to direct movements of blind and visually impaired people. Wayne Risher/The Commercial AppealHingson, of Victorville, California, and Kevin Phelan of Boston were in town to mark the airport’s launch of their company’s technology-based mobility solution, AIRA (pronounced Ira).AIRA stands for Artificial Intelligence Remote Access. Its agents, stationed in all 50 states, see the world virtually through the smart glasses of customers and help them move around in it.The company has been offering AIRA on a subscription basis to individuals for two years, but Memphis is the first airport in the world to offer it to travelers free — like WiFi at Starbucks.
Source: Technology pairs smart glasses and remote guides to guide blind
For us, this shows the power that can come about at the intersection of the Connected Society and Disruptive Technologies investment themes. And while the Alphabet’s (GOOGL) Google Glass hasn’t quite made it into the mainstream, you can see the use case, not just for the blind, but also in healthcare as in our Aging of the Population investment theme in helping for the care of seniors living alone.
