New app that recognises objects and colours through the smartphone.
Aipoly Vision is the brainchild of three young researchers in their early twenties, Marita Cheng, Simon Edwardsson and the Italian Alberto Rizzoli, at Singularity University at NASA's research park in California.
It is an App that enables the blind and visually impaired to recognise around 1,000 different objects and 900 colours as it describes, hands-free and in real time, what is being framed with the smartphone camera
The Aipoly story began in January 2015 with a $30,000 scholarship offered by Google, which the three boys won to attend Singularity University. Aipoly was first tested on a water bottle and, after a few seconds of waiting, it responded correctly, marking the first step towards a bigger project for the three boys.
Scholarships, awards and compliments from big names in Silicon Valley arrived, followed by the partnership with Teradeep and the launch of Aipoly Vision at Christmas 2015, with the App Store landing on 5 January.
Aipoly uses six languages, including Italian, and after only four weeks of release was already being used by about 40,000 people, including many visually impaired people around the world. In a few weeks, it will expand its knowledge to about 5,000 objects.
It was presented for the first time in Italy in early March at the Irccs Fondazione G.B. Bietti per lo Studio e la Ricerca in Oftalmologia Onlus.
Prof. Mario Stirpe, president of Ircss - Fondazione G.B. Bietti, stated that 'Despite therapeutic advances, unfortunately the risk of blindness, which affects a number of people that varies from one country to another, has not been conquered. The innovation described by the group of researchers opens up a new avenue for concrete help'.
The aim behind the project was and remains, in fact, to be able to help blind people, which is why the programme is offered free of charge to anyone who needs it.
Dr. Carmelo Chines
Direttore responsabile
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