Mozambican Robotics Student Invents Futuristic Smart Glasses For Visually Impaired

When Armando Ernesto Chau straps on the futuristic smart glasses that a young Mozambican robotics student is developing in the family dining room, he has a vision of a life less confined to his modest home.

Chau is the prototype tester for Joao Antonio Rego, a 24-year-old robotics and electronic engineering student driven to provide visually impaired Mozambicans with assistance that goes beyond a simple cane.

Since he lost his sight 20 years ago, the 45-year-old father has not worked and rarely leaves his home in Matola, outside the capital Maputo. 

Rego's electronic glasses -- battery-powered devices embedded with sensors that scan for obstacles ahead and emit warning vibrations -- offer the promise of new possibilities.

"It is vibrating ... it is those bushes," Chau said, demonstrating for AFP Rego's Vision Hope 0.2. "Maybe, there is a window here... yes."

"Because of these obstacles, it vibrates. So I go back," he said. "It stopped. See? Then it says there is something on this side... When I turn, it is quiet."

Resembling a virtual reality eye mask, this is Rego's latest prototype since he launched his Vision Hope project in 2021, winning Mozambique's Young Creative Award for technological innovation the following year.

New features include a larger 120-degree range and more accurate sensors, explained Rego, a student at Eduardo Mondlane University.

The battery, attached to a strap that is worn over a shoulder, is on a smart system that saves power and warns when it is running low. A GPS allows others to know the whereabouts of the user. 

 Inspiration 

Rego is already working on improvements in his dining room workshop.

"I want the next version to have sensors capable of detecting very thin obstacles like wires and threads," he told AFP. "The coating also needs to be waterproof," he said.

Slim and serious, Rego was inspired to help when, years ago, he saw a visually impaired woman fall in a busy street in downtown Maputo, said his mother, Helena Inacio. 

"Seeing that woman on the ground disturbed him. He vowed that he would create glasses," she told AFP. 

She had asked: "'Glasses for what? So that blind people can see?' He said, 'No, to give direction.'"

"I thought it was fantasy," Inacio said. 

Rego moved his lab out of his bedroom for better ventilation after a health scare led a doctor to warn about the risks of fumes from his soldering work.

"I had health problems and after an X-ray, they said there were some spots on my lungs which might have been caused by chemical fumes, like tin. It was temporary, but I must always take precautions," he said.

 Independence 

Rego's own vision is to secure partnerships that will allow him to one day produce and distribute his glasses across his impoverished country, where nearly 2.7 million people suffer vision loss, according to the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness.

Chau, who lost his sight after falling ill in 2005 and undergoing treatment in hospital, has made some suggestions for the next iteration.

"I told him to first improve the roadside verification system," he said. He would also like a sensor that can detect the pools of stagnant water that are common in his area. 

And, if possible, a way for detected obstacles to be identified. "A system that communicates... about what kind of obstacle is in front of me, if it is a human being, a car," he said. 

"If the glasses are made the way I suggest, it will help us a lot, me and many other visually impaired people out there," said Chau.

When they are in production and he can get his own pair, the glasses will give Chau a new lease of life, said his wife, Felizarda Nhampule.

"Sometimes he stays here at home alone while I go out and do my errands. Sometimes he wants to go out somewhere but can't," she said. 

"With the glasses, he will be able to visit his friends and get rid of the boredom of staying at home. In case of an emergency, he can go and seek help from neighbours," she told AFP, flashing a smile.

"So these glasses will be a great help to him and to us as a family." 

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