Horus - The Invisible Made Audible

285 million people are estimated to be visually impaired worldwide:

39 million are blind and 246 have low vision*.

* Source: World Health Organization

Visually impaired285 M

Blind54 M

People with low vision (2015)

Blind39 M

Blind people (estimates for 2020)

Global data source: WHO, IBU

Horus is a wearable device developed to assist blind and visually impaired people during the entire day.

Horus observes, understands and describes the environment to the user, providing useful information.

Menu buttons

Stereocamera

Bone conduction system

Menu buttons

Volume buttons

Headset connection

Horus is composed of two parts: the wearable headset and the pocket unit

Our story (in short)

Feb 14’ 15’

SPECIAL AWARD

Recognized by MIT Tech. Review as a disruptive company

Jan 16’

GROWTH

12 new employment opportunities in two years

May 16’

Raised 900k$ in Venture Capital

BETA Prototypes

Received the first custom boards and assembled the first beta prototypes

Sep 16’

Project start

External input identification

Cameras acquire images

Images are transferred to the computing unit

3

2

1

Audio is transferred back to the headset

5Information extraction

4

Sound output

6

How Horus works

Horus can help the user with:

Scene descriptionFace recognitionText reading Object recognition Mobility assistance

Horus is able to recognize printed text. It helps the user in obtaining a correct position for reading, thanks to an audio feedback given through bone conduction.

Text recognition

If the text is located in the upper part of the field of view, Horus emits a high-

pitched sound to tell the user to lower the text

If the text is located in the lower part of the field of view, Horus emits a low-

pitched sound to tell the user to raise the text

Example of audio feedback

Horus can recognize people’s faces and describe them to the user. After detecting a face, Horus can quickly associate a name to it, thus learning and remembering the identity of the new person.

Face recognition

Horus is able to recognize an object thanks to 3D perception.

When Horus has to learn a new object, the user can simply rotate it in front of the cameras. Horus will memorize and learn its shape in order to properly recognize it in different situations

Object recognition

Processing

Input frame (stereo)

Point cloud

Point cloud

Disparity map

Processing pipeline

Center sound

Right sound

High pitch sound

Low pitch sound

Left sound

From above

The location of the object is communicated using stereo audio and variation in pitch

Audible UI

Horus can observe and analyze the surrounding environment to detect the presence of potential obstacles. The user is made aware of their presence through a 3D sound map.

Mobility assistance

User

High-pitched sound left

Horus uses 3D sound to report the presence of obstacles during movement. The space in front of the user is divided in different sectors: lateral obstacles generate high-pitched sounds in one of the two speakers, while

central obstacles generate low pitched centered sounds. These sounds are repetitive and they increase in repetition frequency as the obstacle gets closer.

High-pitched sound right

Reporting obstacles

Low-pitched sound center

Horus is able to describe what the cameras are seeing.Whether it is a postcard, a photograph or a landscape, the device provides a description of what is in front of it with a sentence.

Scene and photos description

Video Here

What did we learn?

1

Speaking a lot about our idea

2

Asking for help to mentors and advisors

3

Write everything down

4

Hiring is super important!

5

Always have a plan B(and maybe C, D, and so on…)

luca@horus.tech

it.linkedin.com/in/lnardelli

www.horus.tech

Luca Nardelli - CTO

Interested in working with us?Visit www.eyra.io