João Rego’s prototype, which he has been working on since 2022, allows for localization and vibrations that interact with the user, warning of a possible obstacle in the path.
Sitting at his workstation in the outskirts of Maputo, among open circuits and the tangled web of cables that bring life to his creations, 24-year-old João Rego tells Lusa that the idea of creating glasses for blind people was born in 2022, inspired by a news report showing the daily challenges faced by those who cannot see.
Your prototype allows for localization and vibrations that interact with the user, warning of a possible obstacle ahead.
“I saw a news report about a blind woman who was walking in the city of Maputo and there was a hole in front of her, and she put her foot down. On that day, I saw this report and was moved by the situation, and since I am from the robotics field, it just so happened that I was designing a robot specifically for an activity I had planned, and I thought, why not help?” recounts the creator, who is trained in electronic engineering.
For John Rego engineering is more than anything else a rescue tool. Without luxurious laboratories, the young person finds the necessary silence for creation in the backyard of their home in the Bunhiça neighborhood, about 20 kilometers from central Maputo, by fusing technical rigor with the desire to change lives and break down the barriers that isolate the approximately 700,000 citizens facing severe visual impairments in Mozambique.
The glasses, which have already been tested by dozens of volunteers and have gone through several versions and updates in recent years, are today carefully wrapped in a capulana, a traditional brightly colored fabric with colorful patterns that embraces and protects a technological system designed to restore independence and revolutionize the daily lives of those living with visual impairment in Mozambique.
“During this journey, several versions emerged. Specifically, there were three very developed versions, and in the process, I used local resources,” he said, reiterating that not all local technological resources are accessible, which is why there was also a need to turn to the foreign market.
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According to Rego, the prototype, now pre-final, of the glasses is integrated with several technologies, including a location system and real-time battery control, as well as vibrations that interact with the user, warning about a possible obstacle.
“Basically, the glasses work in the following way: the user puts on the glasses, just like any normal glasses. They have some sensors; their patented version has 10 sensors. These 10 sensors ‘look’ at 10 different points, covering an angle of approximately 120 degrees. Within this angle, they can detect everything up to a distance of eight meters, but they are optimized for four meters,” he explains.
Among the benefits of the invention, the young inventor notes that “the glasses come to help people have more natural, improved, and detailed movement regarding their environment.”
“For this year, the main goal is to launch the final version of the glasses, which, in their pilot phase, will be a version that helps people become more capable of using the glasses in their daily lives.”
This innovation will allow helping people, for example in employability, by the autonomy it provides, or in education, explains the electronic engineer.
With the work still in development, João Rego also hopes to open doors for the development of national technology, because if the knowledge is produced in the country, it can be easily reproduced in case of a crisis, contributing to the technological and scientific independence of Mozambique.
Despite the glasses already having earned him national and international distinctions, the young man’s greatest dream is to have the device used throughout the country at the lowest possible price.
“For Mozambique specifically”[o sonho]”Having them be used in different parts of the provinces we have and by different people who are visually impaired and change their lives,” he says, emphasizing that the glasses “have this ability to transform lives.”
