We believe that smart devices should be more inclusive.

  1. Over 285 million people are estimated to be visually handicapped worldwide.

    From low vision to blindness, visual impairment affects the quality of life of many people by inhibiting their ability to interact comfortably with the world around them.

  2. Accessing visual information in a mobile context is a major challenge for the visually impaired.

    Activities that you might take for granted- such as ordering food off a menu at a restaurant, deciding what to purchase at a supermarket, counting money, and even reading the newspaper can be a daily challenge for millions of people across the world.

  3. Existing solutions do not afford independance.

    Over the years, our engagement with people with visual impairments have revealed numerous difficulties with existing state-of-the-art technologies including problems with accuracy, mobility, efficiency, cost, and more importantly social exclusion.

Our mission is to empower people with visual impairments to live independently through assistive augmentation.

The ring that helps you 'see'.

Introducing the FingerReader.

A wearable assistive device that allows the visually impaired to independently access information on the go.

AS SEEN ON

Socially acceptable in form.
Intuitive in function.

Designed with user experience in mind.

The finger-worn accessory allows users to simply point at products, restaurant menus, signs etc. and hear the result spoken back to them through a headset.

Text Recognition

Synthesize printed text to speech in seconds.

Object Detection

Extract logos, colors and object characteristics.

Wear and Forget

Designed for all-day usage.

Affordable and effective.

Towards augmenting daily life.

The nature and design of the ring apparatus are driven by lessons from established design frameworks for both natural interaction and assistive technologies.

We hope to sustainably change how to visually impaired experience the world.

Enabling independant, productive and rewarding lives.

The FingerReader empowers the communities who would otherwise have no access to assistive technology because they were either too expensive or did not fulfill the user expectations.

Through continous engagement with blind users and their caretakers, we have developed a thoughtful product that tackles the social stigma associated with assistive technologies, while providing quick and accurate responses in a mobile setting.

I believe the FingerReader will help in three ways. Firstly, it will scaffold persons with visual impairments in their daily activities. Secondly, it will provide greater user satisfaction for blind persons (or those with visual impairments). Thirdly, it will encourage greater design innovation in the field of assistive technology.

We work closely with organizations that support our mission in helping the visually handicapped and their caretakers.

Our partners include the SUTD AH Lab, the SUTD-MIT International Design Centre, the MIT Media Lab, the Singapore Association for the Visually Handicapped, SGEnable, TOTEBoard and VIBUG.

Join us.

The FingerReader is under active development at the Augmented Human Lab at the The University of Auckland. We welcome research collaborations and industry engagements. Please contact us if you share our vision and would like to collaborate with our team.

Email and Phone

info@fingerreader.org

+64 20 4069 9040

Mailing Address

Augmented Human Lab
Auckland Bioengineering Institute
Level 5
70 Symonds Street
Auckland, New Zealand. 1010

Stay in the loop.

Subscribe to our mailing list to receive product updates and notifications on availability.