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Breakthrough innovation specialist Cambridge Consultants today announced the award of its fifth iF Design Award. The award was for Amelie, a smart navigation tool for the visually impaired, which sets out to improve their daily life by guiding and supporting them when using public transport. This latest award demonstrates Cambridge Consultants’ growing and global reputation in design innovation.
The visually impaired rely heavily on public transport for their independence, but the experience of using it is often challenging. For example, it may be difficult to know which bus to get on, where to sit and when to get off. Amelie is a friendly assistant that ‘sees’ for users, allowing them to relax and enjoy their journey. Users set their destination by directly instructing or asking Amelie. Amelie then provides audio navigation to locate the appropriate bus stop and helps users identify the correct bus as it approaches the stop. Once on the bus, users are guided to a vacant seat. During the journey, Amelie discreetly provides information about the journey and enriches the experience by describing the current scene, perhaps by describing the people the user is sitting near, adding context and richness. Once the bus has arrived at the desired destination, Amelie lets the users know they’ve reached their destination.
Cambridge Consultants developed Amelie in partnership with Cam Sight, a Cambridge, UK-based charity that supports people of all ages living with low vision and blindness to live the lives they choose. Amelie was designed using input from intended users. Its design and function reflect an understanding of the daily lives of the visually impaired and the challenges they face when using public transport. The result is a device that’s easy to use and affordable, unlike most assistive products. Amelie’s app takes into consideration the user’s impaired vision and provides information by combining audio and visual feedback. As Amelie is aware of the user’s location, it enhances the journey experience by sharing information such as the local weather, news and traffic.
Amelie uses state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms to recognize hundreds of common objects, making it capable of assisting the user in a variety of daily activities beyond public transportation. Combining these capabilities with location awareness means Amelie can help the user in daily activities, such as socializing and shopping, allowing the user to live life with increased confidence.
Max Curzi, Senior Engineer at Cambridge Consultants, commented: “The goal of Amelie was to create a situation-aware assistant that can pro-actively guide a person with a visual impairment as they carry out day to day activities, while enriching their perception of the environment. Working with Cam Sight emphasized the central importance of user experience and design for usability. Computer vision and artificial intelligence are increasingly prevalent and can now be used in everyday products to describe the content of pictures or video. Text-to-speech and speech-to-text conversions are near instantaneous. Soon, we’ll be able to describe complex scenes in front of camera lenses in real time. But even with access to such amazing technology, the user’s needs must be placed at the core of the design process in order to make the greatest impact on the lives of people with a visual impairment.”
Flóra Raffai, Chief Executive of Cam Sight, added: “We have been delighted to work with Cambridge Consultants on the Amelie project. Navigating public transport can be a significant challenge for people living with low vision and blindness, and Amelie could be a real help to our members in Cambridgeshire and beyond.”
Notes to editors
About Cambridge Consultants and Capgemini
About Cambridge Consultants
As the deep tech powerhouse of Capgemini, Cambridge Consultants (CC), is a global team of 800 bright, talented people. We are united by the ambition to turn brilliant ideas into technologies, products and services that have never been seen before. And which will transform business, society and the planet. Deep tech is a mindset; a bold strategy that harnesses radical science and engineering to achieve things no-one else can. It enables our clients to gain unassailable commercial advantage from defendable technology that they own. We are trusted by some of the world’s biggest brands and most ambitious start-ups to realise their critical technology-based aspirations – and we’ve been doing it for 60 years. Cambridge Consultants is part of Capgemini Invent.
About Capgemini Invent
As the digital innovation, design and transformation brand of the Capgemini Group, Capgemini Invent enables CxOs to envision and shape the future of their businesses. Located in nearly 40 studios and more than 60 offices around the world, it comprises a 10,000+ strong team of strategists, data scientists, product and experience designers, brand experts and technologists who develop new digital services, products, experiences and business models for sustainable growth.
Capgemini Invent is an integral part of Capgemini, a global leader in partnering with companies to transform and manage their business by harnessing the power of technology. The Group is guided everyday by its purpose of unleashing human energy through technology for an inclusive and sustainable future. It is a responsible and diverse organization of over 325,000 team members in more than 50 countries. With its strong 55-year heritage and deep industry expertise, Capgemini is trusted by its clients to address the entire breadth of their business needs, from strategy and design to operations, fueled by the fast evolving and innovative world of cloud, data, AI, connectivity, software, digital engineering and platforms. The Group reported in 2021 global revenues of €18 billion.
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