Oh man!
I want one of these.
Wonder if they'll make it to the u.s.

On 7/3/13, Bob, K8LR <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> This product looks very interesting and may have some real potential.
>
> Bob, K8LR, [log in to unmask]
>
> Israeli Startup's Seeing Aid for the Blind Sees Big Demand
> By Gwen Ackerman - July 2, 2013
>
> Amnon Shashua had a vision of using technology to help the visually
> impaired.
> His startup OrCam is quickly making a global impact.
> OrCam makes a small gizmo that hooks onto a pair of glasses and tells the
> wearer what's in front of him. It can read the text of a book aloud, or
> announce the names of friends and family in a room.
> The Israeli company began taking orders for the $2,500 seeing-aid device on
>
> June 4, and within a few weeks, the first run of 600 units were sold out,
> Shashua, the co-founder and chief executive officer, said in an interview.
> Since then, the company's backlog of orders has ballooned to more than
> 1,000.
>
> OrCam has been manufacturing the product in Israel. To keep up with
> demand, Shashua said the startup plans to relocate production to China.
> He has experience there. His other company, Mobileye, uses Chinese
> manufacturing for its
> products designed to help prevent auto collisions.
>
> Liat Negrin, 37, has been testing early prototypes at OrCam. She was born
> visually impaired, and said the device can help her and others accomplish
> everyday tasks like going shopping without fear of getting lost or buying
> the wrong items.
> "It helps you be independent and helps overcome fears," Negrin said in an
> interview. "It helps you keep your orientation, and you always know where
> you are."
>
> The OrCam consists of a camera and earpiece that attaches to eyeglasses.
> Live video from the camera feeds into a smartphone-size device in the
> user's pocket, which processes the data and sends an audio snippet saying
> what it sees to
> the bone-conduction speaker in the user's ear. Because the video feed is
> processed in the pocket instead of in the cloud like many mobile apps do,
> response
> times are quicker, Shashua said. Also, users won't be left stranded when in
> areas that have poor mobile-data service.
>
> "Imagine there is a helper standing next to you, seeing what you are
> supposed to see, figuring out what visual information you want and
> whispering into your ear what you are about to see," he said.
> Shashua, who is also a professor of computer science at the Hebrew
> University of Jerusalem, spent about three years developing OrCam's
> technology. The
> current version of the tool only supports English, but the 20-person team
>  is working on incorporating other European languages. OrCam can recognize
> a
> wide array of objects including street signs, newspaper articles, money and
> products on supermarket shelves. The device can also be trained to
> identify faces.
>
> It costs about the same as a mid-range hearing aid, and has the potential
> to be just as essential to people who need it.
> "As the world population ages, we will see an increase in the visually
> impaired," said Cheri Wiggs, a director at the U.S. National Institutes of
> Health.
> "At this point, we aren't preventing or curing blindness so any new
> development in assistive devices for visually impaired is very important."
> Wiggs estimated that about 300 million people suffer from visual
> impairment worldwide, with India having the largest percentage. Shashua
> estimates 50
> million of the visually impaired may be able to afford the OrCam device.
> The factories in China better get moving.
>
>
> Source URL:
> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-07-02/israeli-startup-s-seeing-aid-for-the-blind-sees-big-demand.html
>