Saverio Murgia, a biomedical engineer, currently candidate at the European Master of Advanced Robotics, had the idea of Horus in April 2014 when a blind person asked him for help in reaching the nearest pedestrian crossing and boarding the right bus.

Saverio has a strong background in computer vision and the question for him was natural: “Why has nobody already thought of a device useful for the blind? We can enable a robot to see, why is this not applicable to a person?”

He started explaining his project to Luca Nardelli - his collaborator during the BSc in Bioengineering - and from this conversation the first wearable device that can be easily worn on head as a head microphone was born.

Horus observes the scene through a vision system, analysing and describing it to the user thanks to a bone conduction device.

Horus main features are: text reading, navigation assistance (pedestrian crossing, obstacle detection), face and object recognition. It does not require an Internet connection, thus guaranteeing reliability in every situation.

We are currently testing text detection and reading with blind and partially sighted people, gathering feedback on user experience. During 2015 we will include navigation and face/object recognition in our tests.

The Italian technological scene is very active, many tech-startups were born in the last few years and Horus Technology has been awarded by MIT Technology review as one of the 10 most disruptive companies of 2015. At first the product will be launched in the European Union, requiring the electronic certification. A limitation can be recognised in the final price: Horus Technology aims to keep it as low as possible, but the production costs will have effect it.

To reach the final development an investment of 800.000 euros is required. The company developed a patent pending proprietary technology

Horus goal is to help visually impaired and blind people to regain their independence. The claim “The invisible made audible” represents this project; that will have an impact in society, offering an opportunity to blind and visually impaired to gather a greater independence in their everyday lives.

Horus is an innovation: using state of the art technologies and open source software a device that interacts in a completely new way, focusing on verbal and sound communication, was created. The project is organized on different levels and modules. One of it complexities is selecting the criteria to determine what information must be communicated to the user and what isn’t fundamental, instead.

The image-processing and analysis works independently from networks and this constitute a peculiarity, but it requires some adjustments in the process of thinking and designing the device.

Horus Technology strongest point is computer vision and machine-learning software developed. It makes the company flexible (there are many other fields where our IP can be used) and the team is already working on the development of a cloud image-processing platform to start exploiting technology at it best. Concerning the electronics design, we have identified key partners and we are working with them to create a platform that can suit many different uses, not only related to people with a visual disability.

Up-to-date the technology has been fully developed from the team and Horus Technology owns the right on it.

The next stage of development will be the introduction of objects recognition in the prototype, to start testing the second functionality. At the same time the hardware project will be commissioned to a contractor.

Grants from many contests and awards funded the development of Horus, to reach the first prototype, in addition to a successful crowdfunding campaign led in Italy

The expected long-term goal is to create a company, operating in the computer vision sector, with different products directed to different categories. The first one Horus Technology addresses is blind and visually impaired people. Starting to sell the device in Italy, the team home country and then UK, France, Spain, in order to cover the most spoken languages. After that the company will move to other international markets. Different strategies will be used to reach people with different ages. The associations for blind and visually impaired have been included in the development since the first stage and will be involved in the distribution of the device. This device will influence this group of people, but the technologies will be featured in other systems, having an impact on the world of app developers, for example.

The biggest results reached thanks to media coverage are the successful conclusion of the crowdfunding campaign, the contact with associations and blind people from every part of the world, from Malaysia, Japan, Africa, France, Germany, USA and other countries and the creation of a network of people interested in the device, it development and the company itself.