A French start-up is developing an app that helps people with visual impairment get around using high-precision GPS tracking and spatial “3D
When people who are blind or visually impaired try to move around a city like Paris, they can easily get lost the minute they exit a subway station.
A pair of young French engineering students are working to tackle this problem by developing an augmented reality (AR) navigation app that identifies the most practical route for them and uses “spatial sound” – also known as 3D sound – to guide them in the right direction.
“We're trying to make something very simple where you get the 3D sound from the correct direction. You turn in the direction that the sound is coming from, and then you're good to go,” SonarVision Co-Founder and CEO Nathan Daix told Euronews Next.
The app is currently under development and testing, but the young start-up aims to make it available in 2023. The prototype works in Paris but can “pretty easily” be deployed to other big European capitals, he said.
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