OrCam device

The OrCam MyEye is a portable, artificial vision device that allows the visually impaired to understand text and identify objects. The device was developed by OrCam Technologies Limited, and was released as a prototype in September 2013.

OrCam's next product, OrCam MyMe, will be coming soon. OrCam MyMe is the first wearable AI that will monitor the activities that make up your day-to-day routine and interact with your smartphone or smart watch.

OrCam MyEye
Classification Medical technology
Types Artificial vision
Inventor Amnon Shahua
Manufacturer OrCam Technologies Limited

History

OrCam was founded in 2010 with the mission to "use advanced computer vision to help the visually impaired."[1] The company was started by Amnon Shahua and Ziv Aviram who also founded the accident avoidance systems development company Mobileye in 1999. OrCam debuted the device in September 2013 after years of development and testing.[2] Because of a $15 million investment in OrCam by Intel Capital in March 2014, the company has been evaluated at approximately $100 million.[3] Today, OrCam has approximately 80 employees, is headquartered in Jerusalem, Israel and has an office in New York and London.

Design

The OrCam MyEye consists of two main components: the head unit and the base unit. The head unit consists of a camera and a microphone, and is mounted on the frames of a pair of eyeglasses. The box-like base unit contains the algorithms and processing components that give the device its functionality, and can be clipped to a belt or left to rest in a pocket. The head unit and base unit are adjoined by a connecting cable.[4]

Uses

The OrCam MyEye recognizes text and products, and speaks to the person wearing the device via a bone-conduction earpiece.[5] With the point of the person's finger, the device instantly responds and will infer whether it needs to read, find an item, or recognize a product depending on the environment. It may do so without searching for audio books, learning new software, or using other tools.

Reading

Product Recognition

Face Recognition

Future Features

In the future, OrCam will be equipped with the ability to recognize places, colors and much more.

Specifications

The OrCam MyEye's processing power comes from an i.MX 6Quad processor, paired with the added power management provided by an PF0100 power management integrated circuit (PMIC). The i.MX processor, which computes algorithms, gives the device its high performance and energy efficiency. This allows the device to interpret visual inputs and communicate their meaning in real time to the person wearing the device.[7]

In 2011, Hebrew University researchers documented OrCam's processing technique, revealing some of the algorithms. The technique, known as ShareBoost, allows the device to balance recognition accuracy with speed.[8]

On a full charge, the battery provides four hours of constant use or 24 hours on standby. It takes four hours to fully charge and is designed to be charged each night.[4]

The device is priced at $3,500 and is currently available for purchase in the United States,Canada, UK(£2,200 ) with American English as the primary source of communication. The deivce is also available in Hebrew in Israel. OrCam does intend to make the device available in other regions and languages in the future. [5]

The OrCam Reader, an OrCam MyEye that only focuses on reading texts, is available in the United States and Canada for $2,500.

Management

Prof. Amnon Shashua -Co-Founder, Chairman of the Board and CTO

Prof. Amnon Shashua holds the Sachs Chair in Computer Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His field of expertise is computer vision and machine learning. For his academic achievements he has received the Marr Prize Honorable Mention in 2001, the Kaye Innovation Award in 2004, and the Landau Award in Exact Sciences in 2005. He is the co-founder of Mobileye, an Israeli company that develops systems-on-chip and computer vision algorithms for detecting pedestrians, vehicles, and traffic signs for driving assistance systems

Ziv Aviram - Co-Founder, President and CEO

Before co-founding OrCam, Ziv Aviram co-founded Mobileye, an Israeli company that develops driving assistance systems based on its proprietary systems-on-chip and computer vision algorithms that detect pedestrians, vehicles, and traffic signs for driving assistance systems. Mr. Aviram also served previously as CEO of three Israeli companies, all leaders in their fields: Keter (retail chain), Gali (retail chain), and Attrakzia. Mr. Aviram has, in all three cases, taken the companies from loss to profit by restructuring the organization appropriately. Mr. Aviram holds a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management from Ben-Gurion University.

Dr. Yonatan Wexler – Senior VP of R&D

Dr. Yonatan Wexler has researched the field of Computer Vision at the University of Maryland, Oxford University, the Weizmann Institute of Science, and Microsoft. His focus is on efficient use of pictorial information from images and videos and he is the recipient of the David Marr Prize (2003) for his academic research.

Ram Ben Yehuda – VP of Sales, Marketing and Operations

Ram has extensive experience in the field of medical devices, extending from R&D and project management to sales and marketing management. Ram has held key positions in several medical device companies, in addition to the co-founding of a medical device start-up. Ram holds a B.Sc. in Electronics Engineering, and a M.Sc. in Biomedical Engineering and Management Studies, both from Tel-Aviv University.

Efrat Bartov-Be’ery – Project Manager

Efrat joined OrCam after working as a team leader in the DSP and Algorithms group at Polycom Inc., specializing in video compression for video conferencing. Efrat holds a B.Sc in Electrical Engineering and a M.Sc. in the field of Statistical Signal Processing, both from Tel-Aviv University.

Oren Tadmor – Object Recognition Team Leader

Oren joined OrCam after six years of developing state of the art intelligence systems for the IDF’s elite 8200 unit, in conjunction with Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. Oren holds a B.Sc. in Electrical-Engineering from Tel-Aviv University and a M.Sc. in the field of Machine Learning and Signal Processing from Ben-Gurion University.

Reception

Upon its release, news of the OrCam MyEye was covered by several major international media outlets and technology companies, including The New York Times, TED, Digital Life Design, Reuters, Bloomberg News, Foundation Fighting Blindness, The Atlantic, Haaretz, Euronews, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Le Point, Ability, The American Interest, STMicroelectronics, Rescuecom, and many others. [9]

OrCam said that there were over 342 million adults worldwide with significant visual impairment, and that about 52 million of them had middle-class incomes. The 2011 National Health Survey by the National Center for Health Statistics estimates that there are 21.2 million people in the United States over the age of 18 that have some kind of visual impairment.[10]

References

  1. ↑ "LinkedIn". LinkedIn. OrCam. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  2. ↑ "OrCam Device Gives the Vision Impaired a New Way to Read". The Carroll Center. The Carroll Center. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  3. ↑ Meyer, David (27 March 2014). "Intel puts $15M into Israeli artificial vision company OrCam, according to report". Gigaom, Inc. (27 March 2014) (Gigaom, Inc.). Gigaom, Inc. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  4. 1 2 "OrCam User Guide Version 3.0" (PDF). OrCam. OrCam. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  5. 1 2 Pandula, Varun (15 May 2014). "OrCam Wearable Camera for Visually Impaired (with Bone-conduction Earpiece)". The Wearable Stuff (15 May 2014) (The Wearable Stuff). The Wearable Stuff. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  6. ↑ Sterling, Bruce. "Augmented Reality: OrCam". WIRED.com (05 June 2013) (WIRED.com). WIRED.com. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  7. ↑ "Freescale and OrCam Transform the Lives of the Visually Impaired". Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  8. ↑ Shalev-Shwartz, Shai. "ShareBoost: Efficient Multiclass Learning with Feature Sharing". arXiv. Cornell University Library. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  9. ↑ "OrCam in the News". OrCam Technologies. OrCam Technologies. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  10. ↑ Markoff, John (3 June 2013). "Device From Israeli Start-Up Gives the Visually Impaired a Way to Read". The New York Times Company (3 June 2013) (The New York Times Company). The New York Times Company. Retrieved 30 October 2014.

External links

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