“We believe that technology can build bridges between visually impaired people and society,” say four Egyptian engineers in their twenties who have gone on a quest to help visually impaired people “see” the environment they are in. Innovation and social responsibility have gone hand-in-hand to bring Mubser (Can See) to the world. Mubser is a wearable gadget that can sense obstacles to the left, right and in front of the person wearing it. A belt connected to a wristband – or “watch” as the founders like to call it – the device provides directions and feedback by vibrating against the body. It is also connected to a Bluetooth earpiece that gives the blind person instructions on which direction to move and what obstacles may be in the way. Khaled Abu Shadi, one of the inventors of the technology, has made it onto the US magazine Forbes “30 under 30” list of top entrepreneurs to watch worldwide. “When I was 15, I had an acquaintance called Mohamed who had lost his vision in an accident. Since Egyptian society is not very open to visually impaired people, his father took him to Saudi Arabia. At that time I could not help him,” Abu Shadi explains. Driven by a desire to improve the life of Mohamed and other blind people, Abu Shadi and seven other students at the Faculty of Engineering at Menoufiya University made Mubser their graduation project. While today the team has shrunk to four, their company Mubser LLC has won several awards and competitions, becoming one of the top startups in Egypt. “Using a stick can be annoying for the blind person using it and to the people around him,” Abu Shadi said. “Our idea was to have something that you wear and that does not hinder your movements or pose a problem for people around you.” The difference between Mubser and ordinary sensors like the ones that beep when you get too close to another car, for example, is that it tells the person wearing it what the obstacle is via a non-recording camera in the belt. Abu Shadi and his colleagues started out by looking at the obstacles blind people have to face, such as stairs, escalators, chairs and doors. Their gadget can tell whether escalators are moving up or down. “And this is just the start. You can add a lot to this platform,” according to Abu Shadi. The happiest moment for the team was when Mohamed tried the belt for the first time. “The feedback was incredible. My friend could not believe that he had finally found something that gave him hope. Seeing him moving around the room freely motivated us to continue with the product,” Abu Shadi said. The tests have not stopped there. This month the gadget will be given to five visually impaired people to “test-drive” it. However, by reaching out to blind people all over Egypt the team realised that there was no entity that connected them all together, causing blind people to feel isolated. Add to that the lack of statistics about people with disabilities in general, and the young entrepreneurs found it hard to reach out to all those in need of their invention. The Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS) states that there are 30,000 blind people in Egypt, while other sources estimate that there are three million, a very high number compared to other countries. Another problem is that people are not allowed to carry operating cameras in the streets in Egypt. Even though the camera on Mubser is not actually recording – it just senses obstacles in the surroundings – there are legal issues. Another problem is that the device cannot be manufactured and assembled locally because the capacity is not available at present. Hence, Mubser has to be produced abroad. Abu Shadi said that it was time Egypt's businessmen started investing in innovative startups and small projects in order to stimulate the economy instead of putting their investment into real estate. “We have only spent about LE50,000 on the project. This money will help Egypt as a whole. My advice to businessmen would be to stop focussing on big things and look at small projects instead,” Abu Shadi concluded. The writer is a freelance journalist.
