AI powers the way for improved lives

'Angel' for the blind

Cai Dongyue, 26, was born blind, and as a child needed a companion to help him get around.

"I can still remember that my mom and I transferred by three buses and travelled for three hours to get to a boarding school for blind students every week," he said.

"I can go out walking while using guide sticks, but they only allow me to know my surroundings in a radius of less than 1 meter," Cai said, adding that most blind people have experienced being injured by poles, power lines or other obstacles on the road.

In 2016, Cai, a big fan of electronic and digital products, learned that a company was developing smart glasses that could identify objects.

"I like trying out new stuff, so I went to the company and put the prototype to the test," he said.

Since then, he has taken part in testing what are now referred to as "Angel Eyes", made by NextVPU, a vision-processing chipmaker at Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park, Shanghai.

These glasses have two small cameras that capture images just like the eyes and transfer them to a minicomputer with a visual-recognition program and an image database of more than 3 million pictures. Objects in the images are then identified and played back to the user through a special bone conduction earphone.

"At first, I didn't trust the glasses. All electronics have some glitches, after all," Cai said. "But the more I use them, the more confident I become. They have helped me walk farther on my own."

After several updates and revisions, the glasses were released on to the market in 2017. As more feedback and images have been collected and processed, they can now identify more than 30 types of object for the blind, including other people, doors, stairs and cars.