Two Indians win in UAE for making mobile app for visually impaired

Two Indians have won an award in the UAE for social contribution by developing a mobile app that uses distance sensors to help people with visual impairment move around, according to a media report.

Developed by Nandujit Prathap and Visakh G.S, the app Ioptyc by Nexart is among the 10 winning projects in the social incubator programme of the Ma'an Authority for Social Contribution. The awards were announced on Wednesday, the Khaleej Times reported.

Ma'an was established in February 2019 by the Department of Community Development in Abu Dhabi with the aim of bringing together the government, the private sector and civil society to support a culture of social contribution and participation.

The duo will receive Dh 200,000 (USD 54,449) along with training, mentorship in business development. The prize money will be released at every successful milestone the participant reaches, the report said.

The mobile app uses distance sensors and visual recognition technology to assist visually challenged people.

"Ioptyc utilises the power of Google Tensorflow Lite for visual recognition of objects in front of the user, who may be visually impaired," Prathap was quoted as saying in the report.

Once the object in front of the person is detected, the app sends an alert and announces the name of the object over the user's headphone, with the help of Google natural languages package," he explained.

The project also includes a glove that notifies the user through vibrations from the buzzer.

"The glove's sensors are capable of detecting objects as far as two metres away, and the intensity of vibrations varies depending on how far the object is from the user," Prathap said.

Salama Al Ameemi, Director General of Ma'an, said, "We are absolutely delighted with the incredibly innovative 10 solutions that have been awarded a place in the Ma'an Social Incubator programme, which is now fully focused on helping the entrepreneurs turn their dreams into reality."