While developing biped, we noticed that existing assistive technologies were only poorly adaptable for the actual needs of blind and visually impaired end-users. Reality is much more complex than a binary statement of whether someone is blind or not. This is why we adapted biped for various types of needs that we encountered, and we're also very open to developing new ones based on your inputs. By default, biped will assume that the person has no residual vision (fully blind).

1. Blind people
At the core, biped is designed for blind users. The device assumes that the person has no residual vision at all. biped is therefore developed to provide insights despite the absence of residual vision. This is the mode running be defaults on biped.
‍‍

2. Guide dog and white cane users
Many blind and visually impaired people would use biped as a complement to white canes or to guide dogs. This is why we now have a mode to make biped act as a complement to white canes or to guide dogs specifically. This prevents guide dogs from being detected as an obstacle for example, and allows biped to filter out obstacles that the guide dog has obviously detected. The white cane mode will on the other hand focus on detecting obstacles that are not detected by the white cane, and prevents the white cane from being detected as an obstacle too. End-users activate and deactivate this mode with a simple toggle button on the smartphone app.
‍‍

3. Visually impaired people
biped can also act on top of a residual vision, by trying to complement it. Over time, we will support specific conditions: glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, retinis pigmentosa... at various stages, to adapt to residual vision. If the person has photo-sensitivity, biped will provide warnings in such scenario.
‍‍

4. Night blindness
biped can be adapted to night blindness too. Thanks to its infra-red cameras, biped can provide insights in low light and full dark situations. biped will do this automatically, without any setting required from the end-user.
‍‍

5. Hemi-spatial neglect
biped can be adapted for hemi-spatial neglect patients in the smartphone app. Users can then specify whether they have struggles on the right of their field of view, or on the left. biped will the mute by default the area in which the person has residual vision. End-users activate and deactivate this mode with a simple toggle button on the smartphone app.
‍‍

6. Hearing loss and vision loss
biped can also be adapted to end-users facing hearing loss on top of vision loss. This can be done in several ways. In case the end-user uses hearing aids, biped can pair with them over Bluetooth. In case the end-user has cochlear implants over Bluetooth, biped can also pair with them over Bluetooth. In both cases, the sounds generated by biped have been adapted by our team to remove high-frequencies that are harder to hear. In case the end-users prefer to use haptic / vibration feedback, biped has partnered with N'Vibe to play vibrations on the the haptic wristbands too. biped can finally pair with an Apple Watch to provide similar feedback (in progress). End-users activate and deactivate this mode with a simple toggle button on the smartphone app.
‍‍

7. Deafness
While developing biped, we noticed that several deaf end-users faced similar challenges in their daily navigation: understanding where dangers come from in crowded city environments, not being able to pay attention to electric scooters, bicycles and so on... We also developed a mode for deaf users without visual impairment. It will generate vibrations for obstacles coming left and right, but not in front, to avoid redondant information. End-users activate and deactivate this mode with a simple toggle button on the smartphone app.
‍‍

8. Wheelchair and vision loss
Not all end-users will be using biped on 2 feet. Therefore, we developed a wheelchair mode to also allow blind and visually impaired users who sit in a wheelchair to safely detect obstacles. This can be enabled in the settings, by clicking on "I sit in a wheelchair" in the height profile, on the app.
‍‍

9. QuestionsDo you have a question or an urgent matter? You can reach out to our team via WhatsApp.
Click on the QR code or scan it:
‍‍