HoloLens can now guide the blind

HoloLens can now guide the blind

The headset’s ability to map a space and guide people through it may prove its most useful purpose.

For the uninitiated: HoloLens is Microsoft's expensive AR headset designed to create a mixed reality experience.
A new use: A new app for HoloLens aims to act as a guide for blind people. It takes advantage of the device’s real-time spatial mapping capability and uses HoloLens’ speakers to make sounds that appear to come from different points in 3-D space.
What’s next: For now, the routes the app uses to guide people must be scanned in advance, and there isn’t a way to avoid bumping into other people. But the World Health Organization estimates that 253 million people are blind or visually impaired, so the potential market is huge—if the tech can be improved further.

—Rachel Metz

 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/hololens 

https://www.technologyreview.com/s/611197/hololens-can-now-guide-the-blind-through-complicated-buildings/?utm_source=newsletters&utm_medium=email&utm_content=2018_05_30&utm_campaign=the_download 

http://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/blindness-and-visual-impairment