Wearable Mobility has arrived

Wearable Mobility has arrived

By Stuart Beveridge

 

For many years, I have tried navigation aids such as belts that vibrate on your waste to indicate the correct direction to go in. I’ve used apps on my iPhone which give verbal and sound cues on how to get to a specific destination. I’ve used smart canes and vibrating wrist bands to try and alert me to upcoming obstacles, smart glasses and yet more apps which have scene description and object locating capabilities. However, up until now, what I have never had, is one device which is wearable, almost completely hands-free and has all of these features built-in. That was until I found NOA which stands for navigation, obstacles and AI.

 

What is NOA?

It’s a wearable harness which sits on your shoulders. It has a battery compartment which sits behind your neck and two adjustable straps to go over your shoulders. At the end of each strap are two modules. A control panel on the right and a camera on the left. The NOA device is used alongside a companion app which is available for both iOS and Android and when using NOA, you must also wear a set of Bluetooth earphones.

An important point to make here is that NOA is not a replacement for a primary mobility aid such as a Cane or Guide Dog. It’s main purpose is to give the user additional and relevant information to help you navigate more safely, confidently and independently.

 

What can NOA do?

The navigation features of NOA give instructions to allow you to walk to a specific destination and currently, up to five favourite destinations can be saved onto the device. The obstacle detection features give alerts using 3D sounds in your headphones to the location of obstacles and how far away they are and in terms of AI, when connected to the internet, NOA can be used to find specific objects such as doors, pedestrian crossings, stairs, empty chairs and bus stops. It also has the ability to give a full scene description which describes your surroundings to help you make better and more informed decisions when walking and will even try and identify why my Guide Dog might have stopped.

 

What are the benefits of NOA?

As great as my Guide Dog is, he can’t tell me why he has stopped or why he has taken a different path than he would normally. He can’t communicate what he is seeing or why he is having to take evasive action. If I’m out with a cane and hit something, I don’t know what it is or what I’m up against or the safest way to navigate around obstacles I encounter. When navigating indoors, I now don’t need to rely on as much sighted assistance to find doors, counters or empty seats and it’s because all of these problems have now been solved, thanks to NOA and the company who have created this truly life-changing device, Biped Robotics.

For more information on NOA or to arrange a demonstration the website is:

www.biped.ai