Aphasia is a language and communication disorder that affects around 350,000 people in the UK alone.
Almost a third of stroke survivors will experience aphasia, with many struggling to read.
Moreover, about 66 percent of those who have had a stroke experience vision loss following the stroke.
Israel-based medtech company OrCam Technologies is helping some of the millions of people with sight disorders to reconnect with the world around them through AI-powered audio feedback technology.
For stroke survivors, OrCam’s personal AI wearable and handheld devices may offer new opportunities for independence in activities of daily living.
Director of Public & Media Relations, Rafi Fischer, introduces the OrCam MyEye, launched in 2018.
“The device magnetically connects to any pair of glasses and communicates different visual information by audio – in real time – to the person wearing the device.
“OrCam MyEye can tell me who’s in front of me, it can read text from any surface such as a book or a computer screen, it can recognise denominations of money, the kinds of things that one experiences on a daily basis.
“Instead of trying to amplify the person’s deteriorating vision, we do the next best thing which is using audio to communicate what the person cannot see.”
The OrCam MyEye set the groundwork for OrCam’s next innovation, the OrCam Read.
The handheld device was designed for people with sight disorders and those who are reading-challenged, with a robust form factor to withstand accidents and appropriate for frequent daily use.
An optical sensor in the front of the pen-shaped device operates like a modified smart camera, scanning the environment for text.
An LED illuminates the text, with the user taking a one-time snapshot within the red-framed box.
The individual can then listen back to the reading in their chosen language – through the device’s built-in mini speaker or with Bluetooth-connected headphones for private listening – with the option to rewind, fast-forward or pause along the way.
Unlike any other available devices, the OrCam Read can interpret text on any surface, from laptop screens to street signs to curved surfaces such as medicine bottles.
Fischer says:
“As a result of a decade of research, development and innovation, we really defined a new category of “personal AI” technology.
“There are these reader pens, with which you have to physically scan over text which it reads it back to you one sentence at a time. It’s quite laborious.
“But with OrCam Read it’s point, click, boom – away you go.
“After the selection is read, it doesn’t retain the text because this could cause privacy issues. We wouldn’t want somebody else to get hold of confidential documents, for example.
“Having said that, we are working on a companion app that will enable you to save the text in PDF format, should you wish to do so.”
Operating entirely offline provides OrCam Read with three distinct advantages.
Firstly, the captured text plays back in just a couple of seconds.
Secondly, it will work anywhere, from a plane to the top of a mountain, regardless of wi-fi availability.
And thirdly, privacy is assured as nothing is processed in the cloud. It all takes place in the device itself.
Fischer says:
“Over the years, we consulted with hundreds of blind and visually impaired people to understand what they would want in an assistive device.
“One of the things we kept hearing was that the device would have to be close to 100 percent reliable as possible.
“If it was only 90 per cent reliable, they wouldn’t use it. And so, to get this perfected, we had to make it offline. It was a big developmental hurdle to overcome, but we did it.
“The whole impetus behind both these devices was to create really sophisticated technology with an intuitive user interface.
“It doesn’t get much easier than holding a device and pointing and clicking at what you want to read.”
Fischer thanks the ‘geniuses’ in OrCam’s R&D team for the computer vision and machine learning that supports such a smart and intuitive technology.
While OrCam has had some friendly and informal chats with some of the top global tech companies, all the work is done in-house, allowing OrCam to ‘control our own destiny.’
Fischer has worked with a number of UK stroke survivors during his six years with OrCam.
One such individual shared her experience with OrCam in a lecture to the Stroke Association.
“She suffered a stroke at an early age and was using OrCam Read in her daily life,” Fischer says.
“She was considering buying a home and used OrCam Read to go over all the legal documents.
“Beforehand, she would have to meet with her mother to help her with that. OrCam Read helped her reclaim her independence.”
