Lionel Messi joins the mission to improve the accessibility for blind and visually impaired people with the ‘OrCam Dream Team.’
Speaking about OrCam in an interview, soccer superstar Lionel Messi thanked OrCam Technologies for making it possible for him to improve the lives of the visually impaired community.
Lionel Messi Joins OrCam
OrCam was jointly founded in 2010 by Prof. Amnon Shashua and Mr. Ziv Aviram. Besides co-founding OrCam, Prof. Amnon Shashua and Mr. Ziv Aviram have also co-founded Mobileye (an Intel company). OrCam aims to strap the potential of artificial vision into a wearable platform to enhance the lives of blind, visually impaired individuals, and those who have reading difficulties.
Formerly, the original OrCam MyEye device was launched in 2015. Next to that, OrCam MyEye 2.0 was launched in 2017.
The OrCam MyEye is an innovative, revolutionary voice-activated device that connects to ‘virtually’ any glasses. It is a wireless, lightweight, and compressed into the size of a finger, the pioneering technology of the AI-guided OrCam MyEye.
To begin with the features of OrCam MyEye, it can read to you text from newspapers, books, computer & smartphone screens, restaurant menus, labels on supermarket products, and street signs or any other surface. In addition to that, it can recognize faces and help you shop on your own.
In other words, it helps people work more efficiently and live life more independently.
The “OrCam Dream Team”
FC Barcelona captain Lionel Messi was announced as the first Global Ambassador of the OrCam Technologies on 9th September 2020. The “OrCam Dream Team,” led by Lionel Messi, aims to create awareness of the challenges faced by the blind and visually impaired community around the world.
OrCam is excited to announce our partnership with Lionel Messi as our first Global Ambassador, to raise awareness of the challenges faced by people with #VisualImpairments. @fundacionmessi
To learn more: https://t.co/rnpId3UFgM #OrCam_DreamTeam #OrCam4Blind#OrCaMessi4Blind pic.twitter.com/tY1i51eIui— OrCam (@OrCam) September 9, 2020
In conclusion to the deal, Lionel Messi will be gifting OrCam MyEye every year to the blind or visually impaired individuals. In addition to that, he will be inspiring them with his stories as well as meeting some of them in Barcelona.
With Soccer superstar Messi on OrCam’s Team, we aim to empower those who are #blind or #VisuallyImpaired with the help of OrCam's assistive technology. #OrCam_DreamTeam pic.twitter.com/oOEkR7hXom
— OrCam (@OrCam) September 9, 2020
The purpose
According to the World Health Organization, at least 2.2 billion people have blindness or vision impairment. Out of this, at least 1 billion people have a vision impairment that can be prevented but is not addressed.
With the result that OrCam aims, these issues can be addressed. They will be gifting OrCam products to many visually impaired individuals in need. In addition to that, they will be running awareness programs.
In a video of TEDMEDx Jerusalem, co-founder Amnon Shashua described that the ‘ultimate goal’ is to build a portable computer vision that reaches the human level of perception. Shashua said that he genuinely believes that it is ‘achievable’ in the near future.
In 2018, a team led by New York (State) Assemblyman Dov Hikind introduced the use of OrCam devices to ten individuals. To illustrate his monitoring, he termed “new Israeli technology that makes a difference to the blind.”
Image courtesy of Christian Bertrand/Shutterstock