UAE Startup Gives Hope to the Visually Impaired

Amal Glasses provides 25 assistive features in one single device.

Amal Glasses are a unique piece of equipment relying on artificial intelligence. The glasses provide the utmost practicality and convenience for visually impaired people. They were created to resemble casual sunglasses. The only difference is that they feature 25 assistive options along with the world’s first app for the blind.

The glasses are extremely light. They are connected via cable to a pocket controller. Moreover, they do not emit any radio signals and were designed with respect to high-quality standards. As for the processing unit, it was formulated to be very responsive. Part of the team’s aim is to enable touch arm control and voice commands in the near future.

What Sparked the Innovation

Mohammed Islam, CEO, and founder of Amal Glasses saw immense potential in creating a robot that can identify, sense obstacles, and move without collision. Only then, another winning idea hit him; instead of manufacturing a robot to conduct secondary studies, why not shift this technology to help the visually impaired? The process of testing and experimenting with these smart glasses has been going on since 2010.

A Fully Fledged Service

Amal Glasses offer a variety of features such as obstacle warning, weather conditions, people recognition, using remote control devices, color and currency recognition, and a stopwatch. The glasses detect above and ground level obstacles.

Additionally, these smart glasses allow you to record audio, identify products’ barcodes and capture photos, too. They provide descriptive guidance of the surrounding environment (eg. cars, streets, or furniture). Also, they recognize lighting levels as to alert users to avoid poorly lit spots.

Amal Glasses are a safe and convenient service on the road, they feature a specially developed GPS to identify streets, obstacles and provide clear voice navigation. Not only that, Amal has designed an SOS option to share maps and photos to determine the precise location of the user and request help.

Finally, the glasses enable users to read books, menus, and ATM screens in several languages including English and Arabic.

Steady Steps

Amal took part in MENA and South Asia’s top expo, the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (GITEX), where the rising startup introduced its Amal 1 smart glasses model in Dubai World Trade Centre.

In their press release, CEO of Amal Glasses said that: “the introduction during GITEX 2018 of Amal smart glasses, a first-of-a-kind in the world with respect to its specification, aims to provide thousands of visitors and people with disabilities the chance to closely inspect and experience the glasses.”