11-08-2025
Rotarians gift glasses with machine vision to students at Institute for the Blind
It was about one-and-a-half years ago that Rotarian A P Singh received a WhatsApp message from SHG Technologies, Bengaluru, about a wearable device for the blind and visually impaired that utilises artificial intelligence, machine vision, and machine learning.
'It immediately caught my eye, for the Rotary has been working with the Institute for the Blind for many years, and I contacted the company that is run by a retired Naval officer and that's how it all started,' Singh said.
On Monday, Rotarians in association with another NGO, Vision Aids, provided state-of-the-art special vision glasses to 25 brilliant students at the Institute for the Blind, in Chandigarh. Immediate past district governor of Rotary District 3080, Rajpal Singh, said that the project 'SuDrishti', was launched last year in association with Vision Aid. Each device costs Rs 36,750, with the Rotary District 3080 and Vision Aid raising Rs 15 lakh for 40 pieces of these glasses, out of which 25 have been given to the students of Classes VIII to XII at the Institute for the Blind, Sector 26. At the same time, 15 will be distributed to the needy in other parts of District 3080.
According to Singh, who has been associated with the Rotary for the last 25 years, and has served in top positions, including past president, these glasses have an electronic brain and its AI capabilities will enable the children to see and recognise objects, read in multiple languages, navigate easily with obstacle-alerts while walking, identify people with facial recognition, and even share images and location, store information, and are compatible for all-lighting conditions, and children would not need the scribe in writing their exams.
'These are cordless or wireless glasses that sync with the mobile, and whatever text you have in front, it is scanned, and the clear audio of the text can be heard by the users in various languages. The device can be used non-stop for six hours, and initially, the manufacturer will collect regular data and evaluate how the vision glasses are being used by the students, for studying, any activity, exercise etc, and eventually, with this data, we will know how the glasses are helping students in their academics, and we can then next year give these to more students. Also, there will be a training session for both teachers and students,' Singh added.
Apart from academics, the device also takes photographs and saves the name of the people, so when a person is closer to the visually impaired person, it takes the name of the person with the facial recognition feature to help a visually impaired person.
