Hello friends,
I wanted to share some news about a new technology that's been designed with our community in mind. StrapTech has developed a device called Ara, that claims to boost autonomy and independence for those of us who are blind or visually impaired.
What is Ara?
Ara is a wearable technology that promises to significantly reduce impacts and injuries by providing real-time obstacle detection. Users report an 80% reduction in mid and upper body impacts and a decrease in injury risk from 36% to just 6%.
Enhanced Mobility
Those using Ara have also noticed an 11% increase in walking distance and a 19% improvement in walking speed. It’s designed to be hands-free and adapts to your personal rhythm and lifestyle, enhancing your confidence as you move.
Technology Behind Ara
• Upper Detection: An upward-pointing ultrasonic sensor for overhead obstacles.
• Mid-Level Detection: Side-mounted ultrasonic sensors, plus a forward-facing mix of lidar and ultrasonic sensors.
• Lower Detection: Dual downward-angled lidar sensors, supplemented by an ultrasonic sensor.
Continuous Improvement
Ara is designed to evolve. It uses every interaction to refine its algorithms, making it more responsive over time. Its hardware is scalable, and it can receive updates over Wi-Fi, ensuring that it can incorporate future advancements.
Special Offer
For a limited time, Ara is reduced from USD $2,100 to $1,700. For more information or to make a purchase, you can check out StrapTech's website. They also offer an onboarding media pack to help integrate Ara into your daily life smoothly.
This is half the price of BIPED, but twice the early-bird price of the Glide – but without a monthly subscription. You will still need a cane/dog and a whole lot of additional tech.
In the Going/Finding/Avoiding model, ARA comes only under Avoiding. As such, it feels to me like a late entrant into a dying category – a Talks or Mobile Speak or perhaps a Book Sense or Victor Reader Stream (I know) and as such, seems a bit late and far to expensive for me!
Comments
Odd isn't it
Strange how some tech just grabs you and other stuff doesn't. Glide instantly got my attention. This not. Not interested in the least but why that should be I've no idea.
The surviving words of countless unposts
I didn't understand what this physically was. From a Google search, the previews say it is strapped to the chest.
I don't think my mind made any jokes
Just an ultrasound, sunglasses-type device I remember from the 80s that would have been an analog of this, had they chosen that form factor. I remember something that was also held like a cane, but was somewhat rectangular. Not clear if it was ultrasound. They were intended to detect tree limbs and window-mounted, air conditioners... if held perfectly with perfect posture. I was not raised in a Skinner box.
An Old Person Thought
Ah, but hasn't the simple cane held up and adapted well over the years with all its imperfections, as these other devices have twitched and fluttered away? I suppose it will be sad when the cane is thought of as a relic, and people on museum tours try to understand how it was used. Or will they experience it and blindness in a virtual/electro-chemical setting, mostly because they're bored?
I tried it and was sorely disappointed
I actually helped review this back when it first came out with the blind tech guys podcast. I hope it's gotten better since then but based on my experience I couldn't recommend this product. The haptics were awful, it was built like a cheap plastic toy from the dollar store and the button in mine got jammed after only an hour or so, they had to ship another one to me and I imagine that's not cheap with postage these days. Anyway I know things are often buggy at launch but this was on a whole new level I've never seen before, wasn't nearly good enough to use without a cane and in order to use it with one you had to put it in a special mode with all the bottom sensors disabled which basically just meant it could tell me there was an obstacle somewhere between lower chest and upper head level out in front of me. No reliable way of measuring distances involved, no way of distinguishing the size of the obstacle with haptics. I hope it's improved since then but the product we got at launch was so far below the marketed promises I just couldn't take it seriously anymore ... and my tolerance for bugs is really high, I love being an early adopter usually. I use my cane but recognize its limitations, one hand has to be constantly occupied, it's noisy, it can't tell me about a tree branch or the handle of that scooter sitting at stomach level because someone just had to leave it in the middle of the sidewalk ... but this was not the cane replacement we're looking for, not even close.