‘Seeing Eyephone’ App Offers Hope to Blind

A London-based technology entrepreneur is crowdsourcing investment for a smartphone application intended to assist the blind or visually impaired.


A London-based technology entrepreneur is crowdsourcing investment for a smartphone application intended to assist the blind or visually impaired.

The technology will be available 24/7 via live assistants taking advantage of a client phone's rear-facing camera. The app, called Eyebridge, is slated for public launch in October given sufficient investment. Within five days of the product's announcement, inventor Guy Curlewis had raised $81,000 of his $212,000 target.

The app will be available on both Android and iOS platforms and connect via Wi-Fi and mobile networks. Individual customers and corporate employers will have a variety of subscription plans from which to choose starting from $29 per month for 60 minutes of remote visual assistance. The app is fully compatible with Google Glass, and the company says will be adaptable to further advancements in wearable devices.

"One of the most significant technologies behind the app is our ability to simultaneously queue and route thousands of quality mobile video calls across different types of connections," Curlewis said. "Whereas systems to stack and direct voice calls are plentiful, we found nothing that could do the same for mobile video and ended up developing our own proprietary solution."

Curlewis is currently beta testing Eyebridge with a firm of attorneys who will provide their visually impaired clients with free remote video connections. In the near future, he says the platform is expected to serve as a model for applications designed for sighted people as well. For instance, practical usage scenarios are conceivable in the healthcare industry for remote diagnoses and telehealth, in the government sector for translation services and in the insurance industry to facilitate on-site inspections and claims.