Stargazing now possible for visually impaired people with Astreos app
We all love looking at the night sky and enjoying the beautiful stars and moon that decorates the sky. But for a blind person, all these are far from reality. Now, thanks to a new app called Astreos, both night and day sky experiences are a reality for people who are blind and visually impaired.
The app has been developed by two young engineers from Australia – Yuma Decaux and Jake Dean. Decaux lost his vision 10 years ago in an accident. He says that a person who is blind only knows that there is something called outer space around them, but not what the experience is like. He says Astreos works on a spatial understanding.
This app has already helped me. I believe it will be helpful to thousands of other blind people as well- Yuma Decaux, Co-founder, Astreos App.
Astreos app follows NASA‘s horizon system. With this, they can track thousands of constellations in the sky. The app can give the user a feeling of where all of these are located using sound and tactile dimensions. The 3D audio environment makes it an exciting experiment.
Amar Jain, a visually impaired corporate lawyer, says this is yet another instance of how Artificial Intelligence has helped blind people in many ways.
“I am definitely going to download it once its launched. It would be even more interesting for young blind kids who are interested in astrophysics and space. They can get a better insight about how our outer space is. Usually when people talks about the weather being cloudy or some planet being evident from Earth, blind people cannot experience it. Sounds like, this new app can help!”
Makers of Astreos are working on enhancing the experience for users. They plan to make it more smaller and interesting. They have approached experts in the field for a detailed insight. Astreos will be launched by the end of 2018.
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