Anteprenoriat Dezvoltarea Unui Produs Inovativ
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Abstract
Key facts. 285 million people are estimated to be visually impaired worldwide: 39 million are blind and 246 have low vision. About 90% of the world's visually impaired live in low-income settings. 82% of people living with blindness are aged 50 and above.
This paper presents a marketing research about visual impaired and blindness all over the globe. The study is focused primarily on the local market (Romania), Europe (Germany, Sweden and France) and Africa. This study is the base line for launching a hardware device , a pair of glasses with artificial intelligence that will be produced by the startup company AiVision.
The AiVision project, for people with impaired vision, incorporates software that translates images and text to speech, and provides detailed descriptions that help them see the world in front of them.
Among the paper, there are not only researches about the visual impairment market worldwide, but also marketing and selling strategies in order to find investors and to have a successful launching until the end of the year 2017.
Key words:
Startup
Artificial intelligence
Visually impaired people
Blindness
Strategy
Marketing
Assistive technology
Developing an innovative product for
the visually impaired people
Table of contents:
Chapter 1: Introduction
Introduction in visual impaired people
World Wide Statistics and Evolution
Medical and other causes for visual impaired
Psychological effects that Visual impairment have
Understanding visual impaired people’s need
Recent innovation for visual impaired people
Chapter 2: Marketing research
National market research
International market research
Africa
Europa
America
SWOT analysis for similar products on the market
Chapter 3: Presenting the company and product: AiVission
AiVission product
Vision / Mission
Strategy
Organizational structure
Microsoft project plan
Presenting the technical solution
Presenting a video trial of the MVP solution
Chapter 4: Risk assessment and cost benefit analysis
Obtaining financial resources for the project
Risk analysis
Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendation
Chapter 1: Introduction
1. Introduction in visual impaired people
Visual impairment is a sensory deficiency and consists in the diminution of visual acuity to different degrees (up to total loss). Visual disability means, therefore, the decrease in visual acuity in one or both eyes (binocular), which occurs from the life of the intrauterine to the death.
The visual handicap is therefore due to the insufficient functioning (or even removal) of the visual analyzer.
Establishing a dominant role in the individual's life has a particular influence on the body, but also on the personality. The view organizes and regulates the movement, the posture, the balance, the suppleness, the harmony of motor acts of conduct, verbal, mimic and pantomimic pronunciation.
Loss of vision or diminution of it results in a particularly high imbalance in superior nervous activity, in the structuring of automatisms, in its moral state, its social integration. In the view of birth deficiencies, although there are some difficulties of relationship, the inner tensions are lower, unlike the deficiencies due to accidents, illnesses, where the imbalances are very strong, and the embarrassment marks the individual throughout his life (V. Preda, 2014, p. 60).
The main parameter against which the visual analyzer's functionality / malfunction is assessed, viz. The degree of visual impairment, is the visual acuity and the ability of the retinal macular region to perceive small objects.
Causes of visual impairment may be multiple, among them: diseases that evolve with decreased visual acuity:
– some eyelid, lacrimal, orbit, conjunctival,
– ocular refraction disorders (myopia, hypermetropia, astigmatism);
– diseases of the cerebral cortex;
– ocular accidents s.a.
Beyond the anatomical and physiological causes of the visual analyzer, which lead to disturbance of the visual function, there are also general organic causes:
a) Congenital diseases – hereditary diseases, mothers 'infectious diseases during pregnancy (syphilis, tuberculosis, rubella, epidemic hepatitis), but also alcohol intoxications and mothers' drugs, which will affect the visual activity of the fetus.
b) Obstetrical traumas.
c) Children are contacted after childbirth: scarlet fever, convulsive cough, rheumatic diseases, intestinal parasitoses, diseases of the nose, throat; neurological illnesses, diseases of the blood, digestive diseases, traumatisms (Mureșan, 2013, p. 27)
The psychological development of vision impairment is relatively normal if the person unfolds his life in an environment that is not hostile to his or her deficiency.
Physically, a disharmonic development may occur due to sedentaryism, based on the lack of freedom in motion, and is due to the imbalance between the resting muscle forces. The psychic characteristics are also affected, more or less. Thus, perception depends on the form and degree of disability, age and psychological development.
As for the representations, their characterization is based on the form of the disability and the moment of its appearance. In the blind, the formation and development of spatial representations takes place on the basis of the tactile-kinesthetic exploration of objects. The lack of sensory data from the visual analyzer leads to a gap between the abstract and the concrete side of knowledge.
Attention and memory are the strengths of the blind. Attention is relatively well developed, it is favorable to a good evolution of language, focusing on mental activity through auditions. Memory has superior qualities, by constantly calling it, the blind or the ambliopper performs it.
Blinders use a special writing and reading system where the dominant function is the touch-kinesthetic analyzer. There have been more concerns about creating a writing system accessible to visually impaired people. The most known and most effective one was made in 1809 by Louis Braille, blindly following an accident, inspired by the secret writings of a French army captain. He made an alphabet consisting of 76 different signs, each sign consisting of 1-6 points.
Due to their deficiency, these people feel the need for a complete order, placing and keeping objects in well-defined, well-known places for easy find. They are disciplined and show self-control over their own behaviors, in order to adapt and better relate to others.
Most times when people encounter a person with a certain deficiency in a difficulty they try to help her. But few know that some of the difficulties that a person with a certain deficiency is at a certain moment can be solved with the help of specialists in the field.
Among these people are those with visual deficiencies, whose major difficulty is mobility and spatial orientation. This issue can be removed if it occurs in time and the person concerned can gain independence. one can assert that the most important is the visual analyzer that takes up about 85% of the environmental stimuli.
Thus, vision has an important role to play in daily life, ensuring adaptation to the environment, spatial orientation, maintaining balance, waking and attention. Because all this needs to be done, a visual analyzer whose periphery is represented by the eyes, whose structure is very complex, is needed. (Lupu, 2010, p. 41).
Regarding the motor behavior it can be said that once automated the elementary units can no longer be distinguished from those that have been integrated with a certain purpose. As for the control mode, the interceptor control over the exteroceptive one is dominant.
In the learning and stabilization of motor processes there are a series of cognitive variables among which can be mentioned: kinesthetic memory, ability to understand, logical thinking and problem-solving strategies. But besides these, in the orientation and mobility of the blind, the perceptual variables such as the residual, auditory and kinesthetic visual perception also occur.
But these are not enough, as mentioned above, the blind people need motivation to explore the space, so we can consider the affective variables: self-confidence, social behavior, attitudes and motivation itself as having an important role. concerns self-esteem, it has a special role, namely winning it, because there are few cases in which blind people have low self-esteem (Carolyn Palmer, 2007), which makes them not too communicative and less eager to move into spaces that would create different problems.
2. World Wide Statistics and Evolution
Looking beyond a monitor or photographs, codes and texts, we could say that in itself, online means innovation. Evolution. News. And many other attributes of this type. Because with the emergence and development of the world wide web, everything has entered a new era. We see together how innovation manifests itself.
Access to information is much easier and faster. Different types of business have the chance to open up to broader audiences. You can communicate much more targeted and, above all, you can get quick feedback.
But online can not exist outside of innovation. How does the two work and how can your business benefit from these alliances?
Technical Innovation – Your website must always be up to date with the latest developments in specialized programs. Because using an outdated platform will only diminish the potential of your business. In this case, the use of professional web administration services can relieve you of many headaches. (John, 2014, p. 52)
Innovation in the image – besides a multitude of codes, lines, platforms, programs, upgrades and other technical terms, a website means image. From graphics to photography, everything has to be united and send the company's message without a doubt. Whether we use the services of an agency or vendors specializing in professional photography or design, they must look impeccably. I have said it many times, but it is quite true: "a picture makes a thousand words."
Innovation in language – for a website to be complete, its text content comes and strengthens the image. Even though it is often a matter of last resort, content writing should occupy a leading position among managers' concerns. Carefully chosen words, joined in specially designed constructions, not only enhance the visual assembly of the website but are a crucial element in the promotion and sales process.
So, online means innovation. And innovation has to be kept constant for the results to be excellent.
The term World Wide Web, abbreviated WWW or www, called short and web, which in English means "cloth" (spider); is often confused with the net (net) and pronounced / ˌwɝːld waɪd wɛb / respectiv / wɛb / (v. AFI), and in Romanian [pron. üeb] is the entirety of hyperlinked sites / documents and related hypertext links that can be accessed through the World Wide Web (net = network). Documents that reside in different locations on different server computers can be retrieved using a unique identifier called URL. Hypertext including images etc. is displayed with the help of a web browser called browser, which downloads Web pages from a web server and displays them on a client "terminal" to the user. (John, 2014, p. 55)
The WWW is only one of the many Internet services and applications available. Other services include, for example, displaying text-based information, images and sounds, e-mail, data file transfer and FTP information, chat, video and video on demand applications, telephony and Internet telephony services VoIP, Internet radio and TV stations, e-commerce, opinion polls, news spread by RSS, all kinds of graphics and music, working on a remote computer over the Internet, discussion groups on various topics, interactive game systems, software distribution, and so on.
Current browsers can not only display web pages, but also provide interfaces to other Internet services, thus having an integrating effect (a single browser is enough for all services). That is why the boundaries between WWW and other Internet services are not always clear.
An estimated 253 million people live with vision impairment: 36 million are blind and 217 million have moderate to severe vision impairment.
81% of people who are blind or have moderate or severe vision impairment are aged 50 years and above.
Globally, chronic eye diseases are the main cause of vision loss. Uncorrected refractive errors and then un-operated cataract are the top two causes of vision impairment. Un-operated cataract remains the leading cause of blindness in low- and middle-income countries.
The prevalence of infectious eye diseases, such as trachoma and onchocerciasis, have reduced significantly over the last 25 years.
Over 80% of all vision impairment can be prevented or cured.
Moderate vision impairment combined with severe vision impairment are grouped under the term “low vision”: low vision taken together with blindness represents all vision impairment.
The web was invented in 1989 at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland. The initial proposal to create a collection of documents linking them was made by Tim Berners-Lee in March 1989. The proposal arose from the communication problems faced by the team of researchers using the center, even using electronic mail.
The first web server used by Tim Berners-Lee, now at the Microcosm, CERN Museum. (John, 2014, p. 25)
The first prototype of this collection (first in plain text) appeared not long before December 1991, when its first public demonstration took place. The study was continued with the first Mosaic Graphic Application in February 1993 by researcher Marc Andreessen of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) in the town of Urbana-Champaign in the state of Illinois, USA.
In 1994, CERN and M.I.T. the World Wide Web Consortium, which aims to develop the web, standardize protocols, and encourage links between sites, has been formed. Berners-Lee became the director of this consortium. MYTH. coordinates the US consortium, and the European side is coordinated by INRIA, the French research center.
In 1995, Andreessen left NCSA and set up a new company, Netscape Communications Corp., which is developing web software. Then the web has evolved to what it is today, an integrated multimedia service with physical support for the Internet.
Berners-Lee and his team made the first versions of four key components required for the web service, namely:
the HTTP intercom protocol;
HTML hypertext description description language, so it can be displayed by the browser;
web server;
browser.
In 2015 there were about 36 million blind people around the world, but their number could triple by 2050, due to population growth and aging. The number of blind people on the Earth would exceed 100 million in the next three decades, according to the study of scientists, published in the British magazine The Lancet Global Health. This galloping increase could be as slow as the authorities would invest more in the development of new treatments for eye problems, but as things stand out, the number of blinds would now triple in 2050.
In Europe, there were approximately 640,000 blind people in 2017. Only in Germany, approximately 4,000 blind people were registered at the end of 2017. In America there were approximately 18,700,000 people reporting visual impairments.
In Africa, about 57,100,000 blind people were registered.
In 2015, no fewer than 217 million people were affected by a moderate or severe ocular defect, up 35% over 1990, and by 2050 their number would be 588 million people. The study is very complex and is based on data in 188 countries. These projections do not take into account the progress that could be made in research on this subject or other treatments.
It also shows very strong geographic disparities, with a much higher prevalence of dazzling in Sub-Saharan Africa and in Asia. Thus, 1.98% of the population is blind in Afghanistan and 1.86% in Ethiopia, compared with only 0.08% in Iceland, Belgium and Denmark. Women are also more affected, accounting for 56% of the total blind population.
According to WHO definitions, blindness refers to a visual acuity of less than 1/20 or a field of vision limited to 10 degrees or less, while a severe visual impairment refers to an acuity of between 1/20 and 1/10, and moderate between 1/10 and 3.3 / 10.
3. Medical and other causes for visual impaired
Visual impairment is a sensory deficiency and consists in the diminution of visual acuity to different degrees (up to total loss). Visual disability means, therefore, the decrease in visual acuity in one or both eyes (binocular), which occurs from the life of the intrauterine to the death. The vision organizes and regulates the movement, posture, balance, suppleness, harmony of motor acts of conduct, verbal pronunciation, mimic and pantomime. Loss of vision or diminution of it results in an imbalance in superior nervous activity, in the structuring of automatisms, in its social integration.
Visual deficiency repercussions not only on psychic life and on the social relationships of the deficient, but can also influence some morpho-functional aspects of the body. Visual defects, considered as primary defects, can also be the cause of a number of other defects, called secondary, which occur at the level of an organ, system or apparatus (for example, the change of face expression due to the lack of expressive function of eyes frayed and brought or raised, narrow chest, upper and lower limbs thin, poorly developed muscles, rigid, uncertain, hesitant walking, etc.). (Palmer, 2007, p. 80)
In the child's activity, visual deficiency would translate into a slower pace of work and a slower switch from one type of action to another. At the triggering of the orientation reflexes an inhibition of the motor reactions was observed, expressing increased prudence in the face of the new situations, the fear of the unknown reducing the mobility. In connection with the adaptation to unknown situations, a higher vegetative reactivity was observed at the sound signals others by accelerating breathing).
Due to their deficiency, these people feel the need for a complete order, placement and keeping the objects in well-known places, so that they can easily be found. They are disciplined and self-control over their own behaviors to adapt and better relate to others. (Palmer, 2007, p. 82)
Causes of visual impaired:
some diseases of the eyelids, the lacrimal apparatus, the orbit, the conjunctiva;
ocular refraction disorders (myopia, hypermetropia, astigmatism);
stroke brain diseases;
ocular accidents.
Beyond the anatomical and physiological causes that lead to disturbance of the visual function, there are also general organic causes:
1. congenital malformations – hereditary diseases, infectious diseases of the mother during pregnancy (syphilis, tuberculosis, rubella, epidemic hepatitis), but also intoxications with alcohol and mother's drugs that will affect the visual activity of the fetus
2. obstetrical trauma
3. boths contacted by the child after birth: scarlet fever, convulsive cough, rheumatic diseases, intestinal parasitosis, diseases of the nose, throat, ears; neurological diseases, diseases of the blood, digestive trauma, trauma.
Classification of visual impairments (depending on visual acuity – the ability of the eye to perceive distinctly the shape, size and detail of objects located at a distance, as well as differentiating two objects very closely between them):
1. total blight: visual acuity between 0% – 0.5% from a normal view
2. practical denial: a.v. between 0.5% – 2%
3. amblyopia grav: a.v. between 2% and 5%
4. Amblyopia medium: a.v. between 5% and 20%
5. light amblyopia: a.v. over 20% from a normal view
4. Psychological effects that Visual impairment have
Visually impaired people are facing everyday many challenges and difficulties in all the activities they are doing, especially nowadays when the world became so dynamic and things change rapidly.
Most of them, especially the severe cases, have a small level of independency, and they are facing many problems in their daily life, in learning, connecting with people, making new things, traveling etc.
Their condition also depends of their background, level of education and social benefits they have. People living in developed countries have more support, advantages and independence compared with those from emerging or undeveloped countries.
Loss of vision has, according to modern research, physiological and psychological effects, with behavioral consequences, with negative influences on social relations. There is a distinction between birth defects, where, although the difficulties of relationship and the inner tensions exist, they are lower, whereas in those who suffered later, the imbalances are more pronounced, the more powerful framing, marking them all existence.
Visually impaired people experience a normal psychological development, being personified in different areas of activity, if they live in a secure and stimulating environment.
Besides the psychological characteristics, the disability also determines a series of somatic disorders. For some blind people, there is a skull deformity in relation to the viewers, slight disturbances of water metabolism, pituitary dysfunction, delayed physical development, vertebral deformities, imprecise movements, tics, poorly coordinated walking, etc.
Visual perception has a number of characteristics that depend on the degree and form of deficiency, age, and mental development of the individual. Even if some perceptions are preserved, they are unclear, unclear, fragmented. A certain decrease in analysis and optical synthesis correlates with the existence of backsets in the plane of thinking and acquisitions of instrumental operations.
Representations are dependent on the integrity of the analyzers. If mental images are related to hearing components, congenital blind people, tardive blinds or ambulators are also taken into account. The quantity and quality of the representations volume and strength of these represent a gap with verbal knowledge. This gap is amplified as the language develops, the communication in general. Thinking is, to some extent, lacking in intuitive support, and it may be difficult to use generalizations and abstractions. Attention is relatively well developed for visually impaired people.
Language has a considerable role in compensating for visual impairment, being the main form of transmission and enrichment of cognitive experience.
The memory of visual deficiencies is continually trained, therefore, it develops to a higher level, highlighting the qualities of capitalizing, by updating, a large amount of accumulated data.
5. Understanding visual impaired people’s need
Social psychology in general has focused its attention on social perception, and in particular on stereotypes. (Gilbert, Fiske, & Lindsay, 1998 in Uwe P. Gielen, 2001: 233). "Social perception, cognitive process" being conscious and realized through the social experience of the individual through the use of patterns, existing cultural patterns, the system of language symbols, with generalized meanings to the whole of the collective. Through the perception of social phenomena, individuals mirror interpersonal relationships, the existing norms between them, the psycho-social processes within the group and the community of belonging. (A. Bogdan-Tucicov, S. Chelcea et al; 2011, p. 1985)
Social representations are ways of knowledge and reconstruction of social reality by the social actor. It reflects the naive knowledge, the connection between the topic and its socio-cultural environment. They are impregnated by the rules and patterns specific to a culture at one time. Social representations are a sociocognitive ensemble, structured and organized by knowledge and behavioral prescriptions.
They fulfill knowledge functions, facilitate communication, guide social behavior and allow for adaptation to the immediate context. It helps to define the social and personal identity and the insertion of the individual and the group into the social field.
Everywhere people with disabilities meet; the perception of society towards them is not always constant, depending on society and society and from time to time. Through this social perception of the individuals who make up the society, we are provided with meanings and concepts often wrong with the disabled, who depend on culture and the values promoted. The problem is that in a modern society that promotes values and personal success, disability (including the visual one) is perceived as a failure, a disappointment for society.
There are many testimonies in specialized literature suggesting the existence of disabled people who have had a successful career (JF Smart and DW Smart, 2006, p. 29), which was more rarely seen in people with visual impairments but who, over the last two decades the development of technology has opened new paths for personal development.
Even though in our society the global perception of people with disabilities has improved a lot in the past several centuries, there are still many people, communities that patologize and reject people with disabilities, thus succeeding in causing them to give up trying to integrate socially. By understanding the social dimensions in which the individual with a disability is involved, an important aspect of sustained development can emerge. This holistic perspective allows the use of accessibility as a means of identifying disadvantaged groups.
Integration of people with disabilities is a topical issue, very sensitive and very controversial all over the world through integration, it is understood that every person has rights and obligations in society and must be respected based on the principle of equalizing the chances of all members, the theory of normalization, closely linked to the concept of non-institutionalization, promotes the social integration of people with disabilities as close as possible to normality, based on the principle of equalizing the chances of all members of society." (Verza, F.E, 2002, p. 93).
Both in the world and in our society people resolve the problem of disability by choosing ignorance and despair because they do not want to accept people with deficiencies near them even if they have the same human value as any other member of society. People who have no deficiencies in most cases do not have the strength to show solidarity and indulgence towards their peers, they treat them with indifference and do not respect them. Today's society places more emphasis on economic, political, social, cultural conditions than on the situation of people with disabilities who need support and understanding to face some barriers.
6. Recent innovation for visual impaired people
Smart devices revolutionized how people do everything from monitoring time to communication and even moving from one place to another. But for those with visual impairments, these devices that many of us take as such are not always fully adaptable.
Globally, there are about 285 million visually impaired people who have no access to today's technological advances and to the comfort of everyday life that those who see. From libraries without Braille, to street signs and intelligent devices, their journey through life is a completely different and extremely difficult experience.
Korean Eric Juyoon Kim has noticed a real need for visually impaired people – to have access to tactile information. Currently, most gadgets for the blind are voice devices. As a student at the University of Washington, Eric realized this when his blind colleague studied with the Braille textbooks. In addition, he understood that for those with visual impairments, access to information is limited and lacking in innovation. He has decided to do everything possible to change this situation and to create an inclusive and inclusive world where blind people have the same opportunities to learn and communicate as everyone. That's how Korean Eric Juyoon Kim came to develop the first intelligent watch at an affordable price.
His company in South Korea has launched a device, called Dot, that displays information in Braille using small points on the dial. In a predominantly visual world, this watch is designed to provide a sensory experience to people who can not explore the world through vision.
The Dot clock has developed a mechanism in which there are four motorized modules under the clock dial and each module has six possible points. The system, depending on what it needs to display, allows the clock to pick up only certain points to display four characters at a time. As can be read on paper, the user can read Braille on the clock dial.
As for the case, the Dot looks almost like any regular smartwatch or fitness bracelet. It has a diameter of 42 mm and is made of aluminum. Battery life is 10 hours, giving users 5 days between uploads.
In addition to typical clock features such as an alarm, pedometer, and time display up to seconds, the smart watch can also display social network notifications, text messages, instructions, and other personalized information, being synchronized with Bluetooth devices.
So far, there are 140,000 customers who have ordered it (including the famous singer Stevie Wonder) from 13 different countries. The Dot clock would cost less than 270 euros.
Those who have created this revolutionary technology do not stop here. Dot, the company behind the smart clock, plans to release the tablet called Dot Pad in partnership with Google – a tablet like Kindle that displays shapes and images with tactile buttons. DotPad will be of great benefit to blind people, helping them learn more accurate science such as maths and creative fields such as the arts.
Such innovations can improve the quality of life of people experiencing serious vision problems.
Persons with visual impairments can access real-time news in real time using the "Hear News" application, which plays audio information published by four websites: www.mediafax.ro, www.gândul.info, www.historia.ro and www.divahair.ro.
"Hear News" is a free-of-charge personalized service for people with visual impairments that aims to facilitate their access to news in real time with the help of a voice synthesizer. Users of this app will be able to easily find out the news and information published by four websites: www.mediafax.ro, www.gândul.info, www.historia.ro and www.divahair.ro.
The application was developed by the Pro Foundation Foundation and funded by the Orange Foundation with the amount of 201,345 lei under the "World through Color and Sound" program, 2014-2015, also benefiting from the support of the Romanian Association of the Blind (ANR), which contributed to develop it in a format tailored to the needs of the blind and to coordinate training sessions with beneficiaries.
With the Hear News application, initiators want to provide blind and simple people with a tool that is tailored to their needs, simplifying and facilitating access to state-of-the-art information, quality, and content.
The absence of messages and advertising banners is one of the benefits of the application, these being the most common barriers in the online environment for blind people. Mobile app users will be able to select the information they are interested in, whether they are news or editorials published on the sites mentioned.
In addition to developing the mobile application, the Hear News project also includes training sessions with members of the largest blind communities in Romania, from Bucharest, Botosani, Cluj-Napoca, Arad and Buzau, organized in partnership with the Romanian Blinds Association, and each participant will acquire the necessary skills to train other blind people in his / her community. To this end, audio and video tutorials have been developed to provide optimal learning support.
The goal of the project is that over a year after launch, over 1,000 visually impaired users can use the app, making it available on all Android and iOS smartphones and tablets and can be downloaded free of charge from stores Play Store and App Store using search terms "Hear News".
People use the vision to access about 90% of the information they need to move safely and orient themselves in space. In the case of people with visual impairments, mobility and orientation may be extremely difficult. They use the perceptions and a complex cognitive process to carry out their daily activities, to socialize and enjoy the environment and culture.
In recent years, researchers have developed technologies to help people with disabilities, taking into account all the elements of accessibility, safety, comfort and environmental friendliness. New technologies have produced changes at all levels of society and have profoundly influenced activities in state institutions, including the rehabilitation, education and social inclusion of people with disabilities.
The leadership of the National Authority for Disabled People, together with the Personal Counselor of the Minister of Labor Mr. Mihai Tomescu, tested on June 14 this year a Loges Vet Evolution (LVE) that ensures the individual orientation of people with disabilities in the space allowing them to constantly perceive the direction and space location of the routes.
The system is innovative and consists of the installation of a strongly orientable tactile-flooring floor, with the help of a computer technology that allows punctual and continuous emission of vocal space information. L.V.E. offers voice information about the environment, quickly and in contact with the floor, allowing the user to be properly informed and analytically aware of the environment. This technology offers high autonomy and high security for people with visual difficulties, with modular elements of the rug being fitted with specially designed grooves that highlight shape, spacing, and height.
Visually impaired and blind people are thus helped to reach their destination by actively using the tactile information received from L.V.E. footwear and special electronic stick. An antenna placed across the length of the touch carpet sends a Bluetooth signal to the headset and the mobile phone of the user, giving voice information about the carpet and the surrounding area.
The Young Guru Academy (YGA) established the WeWALK project, founded with the help of the Indiegogo platform donations. The WeWALK cane is an invention for people with visual impairments.
The Young Guru Academy (YGA) established the WeWALK project, founded with the help of the Indiegogo platform donations. The WeWALK cane is an invention for people with visual impairments.
WeWALK also benefits from ultrasonic sensors for indoor and outdoor environments, alert sounds and vibrations and LED safety light.
The user will be instantly notified when difficult to identify obstacles, such as tree branches and traffic signs. In the future, he could also integrate the possibility of calling a Uber or a Lyft.
YGA, the founding company of the project, is a nonprofit international organization that aims to find innovative solutions to the pressing problems of society. The company has a 10 year experience in building new equipment for visually impaired people.
The invention is extremely useful if we look at the overall picture. At the beginning of 2018, British doctors managed to repair the sight of stem cells in a world premiere.
In the future, an acceptable form of treatment may appear, but until then, people with visual problems still need help to get around the world – and it could come in the shape of a smart stick.
The invention of young Romanians – Sensors for Blind Sensors – Awarded by Microsoft
Innovation was awarded in the "World Citizenship" section of the Microsoft contest, a section whose purpose is to create the best software for solving social problems. The two have won the first prize at the national stage of the Imagine Cup contest.
The glasses were called "Vizium". Designing, purchasing parts and assembling was not easy. "The materials used for the device cost 300 euros.
The device "is in the form of glasses fitted with ultrasound sensors of several types, which complement one another. These sensors are meant to read the environment, read the distance from objects, which is calculated and transmitted to vibration engines. The person wearing this device will feel, by vibration, the proximity to the objects around it and their outline. He will not see colors, but will be able to approximate the distance to the objects around him. When it's free, vibrations feel strong, when there are obstacles, vibrations are weaker ".
The bionic eye
The bionic eye or artificial eye that can help the blind to regain partial vision is no longer science fiction. Invited and developed by an American company, the bionic eye has already reached its second variant, titled Argus II. Research in this field is also being carried out in countries in Europe. For example, in the UK, in a sustained National Health System project, in January 2017 ten completely blind patients due to genetic disease agreed to implant a bionic eye that would partially render their vision. News related to the bionic eye bring hope among the blind.
BatPro – Calculator for the blind, put into practice in Brasov
It is an important project for the Brașov blind and the City Hall's Social Services Department has for a long time been working well with the Brasov Blind Association. Today we have a very strong international association and the chance to benefit from a facility that will definitely improve the level of life of a large category of social service recipients who are visually impaired.
The action is part of the National Project "BatPro – Calculator for the Blind", initiated by LIONS Club Arad and financed by the Orange Foundation. The project aims to familiarize people with visual impairments with the use of a computer through a specially developed application. At national level, the project will have over 500 beneficiaries in the first five years of the project. The application created within the project allows the user to use only four (up, down, left and right) keys to scroll through a menu from which he can choose various options that will give him access to: a collection of thousands of audio books, newsletters on the websites of several newspapers, information available on the Internet, online radio stations, etc. Then, with an application's functionality, people with visual impairments will be able to learn the keys and use the keyboard.
The "BatPro – Calculator for the Blind" project is funded by the Orange Foundation with the amount of 211,650 lei, under the fund "World through color and sound", 2015 edition.
The application is intended primarily for visually impaired people who are not familiar with using the computer. This allows the user to scroll through the entire menu with only four keys (top, bottom, left, and right) and access a collection of 40,000 audio books, news on the websites of several newspapers (local and national ), information available on the internet, online radio stations, weather information, currency exchange information. The application also contains games and an interactive program developed especially for the blind, with which they can learn how to use the entire keyboard.
The Lions International Association has 22 members in Brasov but has 63 clubs with 1260 members nationwide. At international level, the association boasts the world's largest humanitarian service, especially for the blind, and is 100 years old. The association has participated in the formation of the UN, and its president is always the first deputy of the UN Secretary-General.
THATS, the application that changes the way the learner learns
THATS is a free, easy-to-use app for blind people that tracks their hand position and gives detailed explanations about the area. Dan and Dorin participated with her at the Changeneers competition, they reached the final.
The application follows the position of the blind man's hand and gives detailed explanations about the area. It's innovative because it's a mobile application, not a big, expensive, expensive hardware device, as previously done. It's a free app and it gives you the opportunity to create your own images that you want to show to a blind person. Do not constrain yourself to using a particular style of touch content, but you can use various techniques.
How to see the world with your ears
How about if you could see with your ears? This is the challenge that Israeli neuroscientian Amir Amedi is trying to address with a European funding. The result is a mobile app for the blind.
50 years ago, an American neuroscientist tried to create devices for the blind to understand the world around them by micro-electric shocks conducted directly into the tongue. Today, in Israel, scientist Amir Amedi thinks it's just a few years away from selling a device that will help blind people "hear" the views around them.
With Amedi's EyeMusic technology, the Blind can describe faces, read the emotions of others, recognize body posture and detect colors. High objects are tall sounds, while smaller objects have a lower tonality. The width of the objects is the length of the sound, the colors are played using different musical instruments. These sounds are far from melodious, but only 10 hours are enough for a blind person to learn the basic principles of this language – though, to become fluent, it takes more time.
Amedi, a former jazz saxophonist, is a world-renowned neuroscientist with 15 years of experience in studying brain plasticity and multisensor integration. Amedi is particularly interested in vision rehabilitation and is Associate Professor at the Department of Neurobiology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Center for the Study of the Brain.
Amedi's research is part of a series of studies on senses that have been funded over the last decade by the European Research Council (ERC), the main agency of the European Union that supports avant-garde research. Our interactive article on Amedi's research is available on our ERC = Science communication site. This campaign uses popular science themes such as longevity and healthy food to highlight ERC-funded research projects and their impact on society.
Chapter 2: Marketing research
1. National market research
In Romania, over 3,200 children live and 106,588 adults with visual disabilities. Of these, 1,116 children and 54,559 adults are classified as 'severe' with disabilities.
The Association of the Blind in Romania is a national non-governmental organization, recognized for public benefit. It represents the interests of the blind to the whole country, being recognized as a representative national organization of the blind by both the Romanian public authorities and the international organizations of the blind; is a member of the European Blind Union, the World Blind Union, the National Disability Council and, implicitly, the European Disability Forum. The association includes about 80,000 members, persons categorized as severe, accentuated and environmentally handicapped.
After 1990, the National Conferences (General Assemblies) of the organization and its affiliates were held regularly every five years. Within these conferences, the governing bodies of the subsidiaries and the National Executive Board were elected. The number of branches increased from 16 to 30, while also increasing the network of branches and clubs as well as the number of employees.
The Association of the Blind in Romania has concluded partnerships with various institutions in the country and abroad, including: the Ministry of Education for the printing of school textbooks in braille for the entire country, in the specialized printing house of the Association, the only one in Romania that has the capacity to produce large prints in braille; The Ministry of Culture and the National Cultural Fund Agency, in support of braille publications; The Romanian Broadcasting Society, which since 1992 has included programs on issues related to the lives of visually impaired people in its programs; Writers' Union of Romania for the audio printing of the Romanian literary values in blind formats. (Popa, 2017, p. 62)
In Romania there have been for years the Association of the Blind people.
The Association of the Blind in Romania is a national non-governmental organization, recognized for public utility by H.G. 1033 / 03.09.2008, functioning on the basis of Government Ordinance no. 26 of 30 January 2000 on Associations and Foundations, published in the Official Gazette of Romania no. 39 / 31.01.2000, modified and completed by Law no. 246 of July 18, 2005, published in the Official Gazette of Romania no. 656 of July 25, 2005 and has legal personality according to the Civil Sentinel no. 3288 of 27 September 1956 of the former People's Court of the "23 August" District of Bucharest and is the continuation of the Romanian Society of Blind Society founded by Queen Elisabeth of Romania, as it results from the documents on its subsidization by the State, published in the Official Gazette no. . 194 of 27 November 1909 and the Statute approved by the Royal Decree no. 3159 of 11 November 1910 published in the Official Gazette no. 180 of November 14, 1910.
The Romanian Blind Association represents the interests of the blind to the whole country, being recognized as a representative national organization of the blind by the Romanian public authorities as well as by the international organizations of the blind; is a member of the European Blind Union, the World Blind Union, the National Disability Council and, implicitly, the European Disability Forum.
On August 1, 1906, Queen Elizabeth, supported by King Carol I and senior representatives of the political class of the day, founded the Society of Blinds in Romania, a forum of major importance in the Queen's humanitarian projects designed to develop through its central body through its subsidiaries, a number of institutions for the benefit of adults and children with severe visual affections. From the very beginning, the Society set up the Blind Asylum of the Light and the Primary School for Blindes "Queen Elisabeth" for the operation of which the buildings were built in Str. The marriage-between-living no. 20, today Str. Vatra Luminoasa nr. 108, Bucharest. In order to achieve the social protection goals of the Blind Society, the Royal Palace had acquired in 1901 an area of 12.5 hectares in the east of the capital, in order to be able to build the locations for the planned institutions. The Queen laid the foundation stone of the Light Hearth Asylum and the Primary School (now known together as the Blessed Shelter), on Oct. 18. 1908, building operations ending in 1912.
Practically, the locations of the current institutions – Queen Elisabeth School of Discipleship Center and the Association of the Blind – date back to the early twentieth century, being the work of the Queen and the governors of that era. It is worth noting that, along with state resources and personalities in the country, part of the funds for raising the settlement is due to US President Theodore Roosevelt, and another important part of the remarkable technical invention of the blind prince Dimitrie Theodorescu whose "Braille Tiparniță "Was successfully sold in England, Australia and the United States of America. (Popa, 2017, p. 65)
This information is presented by the historian Gabriel Badea Păun in his monograph "Poet Carmen Sylva, the Amazing Queen Elizabeth of Romania", which was presented as a doctoral thesis in France and published in the Humanitas Publishing House. The social, vocational, educational and educational activities of the Vatra Luminoasa Settlement have reached such high prestige in the early years that, in 1920, the City Hall changed the name of the Mărcuța-vii Street in the Light Hearth. The street name has expanded over time over the neighborhood. It is the only case in Europe where a neighborhood of a large city owes its name to a blind institution.
After the First World War, the Society of the Blind coordinated the activities of the Asylum and the School of the Vatra Luminoasa Settlement, as well as of the Blind Asylums in Chernivtsi and Timisoara, of the schools for blind people in Cluj and Arad, and of 1936 and of Buzau. The Society functioned in the spirit and letter Legi no. 21 in 1924 with regard to associations and foundations, having established numerous branches in the country and abroad. During the Second World War, due to the destruction of some hospitals in bombings, the Light Hearth Lodge hosted an ophthalmology hospital.
It should be noted that during the interwar period the term "asylum" was not a pejorative character. In Bucharest there were production workshops where the Asylum Blinds worked and whose products were marketed, and these revenues were added to the consistent state subsidy.
In order to pay tribute to the royal family's contribution to the building and development of the Society of the Blinds and its Institutions on Oct. 31, In 1925, in the courtyard of the Light House of Vatra, in the presence and under the auspices of Prime Minister Ion I. C. Bratianu, the bust of Queen Elizabeth was unveiled. The Society of the Blinds had, in 1940, before the territorial assignments, a number of 70 branches in the country and abroad.
In 1949, the Romanian Blind Society was abolished by the communist regime by the decree that abolished all Associations and foundations. It is worth mentioning that in the same year the Communists were destroyed by the symbols of the royal family's founders: the bust of Queen Elizabeth was irreparably damaged and disappeared, and her writings, signed by Carmen Sylva, as well as those of the Queen Mary, transcribed in braille, they were burnt in a "ceremonial" Stalinist.
The Communist regime abolished the Society of the Blinds in Romania, but not the institutions created by it: thus, the Bright Vatra Residence, with its workshops and accommodation spaces, was transformed into the Professional School Group no. 5 also intended for the blind. The pupils of Queen Elisabeth primary school were redistributed to Cluj and Buzau schools, the Bucharest School Group being for teenagers and adults, for qualification and even professional retraining.
In parallel, in the years 1949-1950, in an action that must be qualified as fully positive, the regime established what would become the Central Union of Craftsmanship Cooperatives (UCECOM) and the co-operative units in which it integrated people with all types of disability. Thus, he gathered them from the streets and brought them out of isolation to the young and able-bodied, sending them either to vocational training, or to qualify them in their workplaces, in their simple and very accessible crafts and occupations, level of technical development of the moment economy: making brushes, brushes and cardboard packaging. (Popa, 2017, p. 77)
With the mobilization of such a social action such as schooling, vocational training and employment, it was noticed that for both the blind and the authorities the functioning of an organization of the blind would be more useful than its absence. Such a structure, bringing together the blind and helping them to communicate with each other on specific issues, could overturn the isolated and tedious experience of this human category. On the other hand, an organization of the blind could, through its members, solve a number of specific issues in place of the authorities.
Consequently, in the years 1955-1956, regional structures (branches) of a projected Romanian Association of Blinds were created and at a Congress of Delegates from August 3-4, 1956, in Bucharest, this organization was founded under the name of the Association of the Blinds in Romania, recognized through the Civil Sentence no. 3288 of 27 September 1956 of the former People's Court of the "23 August" District, Bucharest. It should be remembered, however, that an unusual incident occurred at the founding Congress: the Romanian Workers' Party wanted to impose as Laura Cernea's secretary general, the widow of Stephen Foris, a member of the Communist Party, illegally murdered, murdered by the comrades in April 1944. The delegates of the blind at Congress systematically refused to vote Laura Cernea.
The Romanian Blinds Association was coordinated by the Ministry of Social Affairs, took over the publication of the new Life Braille magazine (funded by the so-called ministry since 1954); began systematic identification of blind and partially-sighted children and adults across the country and their orientation to schools, ophthalmological services, professional centers or craft units; has purchased a braille typography, resuming the tradition of printing books, publications, and school textbooks. In 1959, on the basis of a rigorous selection of talents, he set up the Optimistic Revue Ensemble, which since that year has played tours in the country with musical and humorous performances, the revenues being paid to the Association of the Blinds and state institutions, according to the criteria law of the time.
In 1963, the second Congress of the Association was organized, renamed a conference, which decided to change the name of the Association of the Blinds in the Association of the Blind in Romania. New socialization activities for visually impaired people have been set up in a cultural and sports field, with a series of competitions and competitions being launched. The number of branches of the Association of the Blind has reached 16, according to the number of administrative regions of the country. In 1966, the organization opened a tape recording studio on the magnetic tape, based on voice readings, in front of the microphone. At the same time, affiliates have opened phonograms for free storage and distribution of books in the new format. In 1968, the Association obtained approval for the publication of a quarterly, quarterly supplement, of the monthly New Life Braille magazine.
The last National Conference of the Association of the Blind during the communist regime took place in 1971. The Ministry of Labor, the coordinator and supervisor of the Association's activity, did not approve any other conferences until the fall of the communist regime. Although current activities have continued, the Association has been involved in social, cultural, educational, sports, representation, and counseling programs and services for its members, a decline in the organization's autonomy, as well as the authorities' refusal to support technical renewals and diversification of the necessary professional training, as well as the extension of activities. However, the organization proved to be representative of the blind in Romania, intervening on several occasions when fundamental rights and their interests were in danger. Thus, in 1980, when there was an attempt to abolish the high schools for the blind, it intervened vigorously with the leadership of the state. Nothing could be done, however, against the telephone banning of blind people's access to higher education, a PCR provision in 1981. We note that in no other communist country a measure of such aberrant discriminative dimension has been taken.
Under the conditions of freedom regained at the end of 1989, the chances and choices of the Association became more generous: the National Conference was freely organized in June 1990; the name of the organization's periodical was changed from New Life to our Letter; a representative of the blind became a specialist inspector in the Ministry of Education, responsible for the education of visually impaired people and the schools in the field. This high professional responsibility function has made it possible to take fair decisions to re-establish schools for blind people who have been dismantled by the Ceaușis regime and to set up new, rigorously needed ones. Upgrading access to information through the acquisition of braille printing systems with the Ministry of Culture and PHARE programs, the audio studio once refurbished, has been recorded on magnetic tapes, and in recent years the printing of books and audio publications on cd- in format mp 3. The specialists of the organization contributed decisively to the realization of the synthetic voice program in Romanian for the computer, a program through which the blinds gain full access to any written information and manage to eliminate the handicap barrier in relation to work in professions and occupations involving the use of information technology. (Popa, 2017, p. 81)
At the initiative of the organization, on May 25, 1990, H.G. 610 who gave blind people a monthly allowance. In 1992, on the basis of advanced texts by the Association, the Parliament adopted the Law 53 for the Social Protection of Persons with Disabilities and the Law 57 for the Employment of People with Disabilities. Based on the State Secretariat for Handicapped Statement (SSH) no.1642 / 19 aug. In 1992, the money rights of the blind, deriving from the mentioned law and called "social pensions", were distributed by the Government through the Association of the Blind of Romania (ANR). More specifically, the related amounts, coming from the Ministry of Finance through SSH, were not received by post to beneficiaries until after the examination and approval of their files by the NRA specialists.
NRA served as a budget execution partner of the Government until 31 December. Government Ordinance no.14 / 2004 changed the way of distributing money rights for people with disabilities.
Since 1990, the National Conferences (General Assemblies) of the national organization and its subsidiaries have held regularly, every five years, the governing bodies of the subsidiaries and the National Executive Board being democratically elected. With the establishment of new branches, almost doubling their number from 16 to 30 has also increased the network of branches and clubs as well as the number of employees, making a move to the homes of the blind for services provided to them in all counties and all cities large or medium in size.
Partnerships have been concluded with:
– Ministry of Education for printing school textbooks in braille for the entire country, in the specialized printing house of the Association, the only one in Romania that has the ability to produce large prints in braille;
– The Ministry of Culture and the National Cultural Fund Agency to support the publications in braille and in visual writing by ANR;
– The Romanian Broadcasting Society, which since 1992 has included in its programs the "Eye of the Interior" with topics related to the life of the visual deficiencies, which is currently broadcast every Friday night on the Romania Actualities program between 2030 and 2050 and made by a blind journalist. In 1999, she was added the Light of Words show, 10 minutes a week (currently, every Saturday, on the Romania Actualități program between 2050 and 2100), to promote the literary and musical creation of Romanian viewers;
– Writers' Union of Romania for the audio printing of Romanian literary values in blind formats;
Organizations of blind people from European countries to implement international projects with:
– The French Blind Federation for the purchase of an electronic braille printing – PHARE program 1993-1994;
– The French Blind Federation for the establishment of a plastic packaging workshop – PHARE program 1996-1997;
– The French Blind Federation and the François Cavazza Institute in Bologna – PHARE Telemarketing 2000-2002;
– Socio-Sanitary Agency, the Academy of Music in Caserta and the University of Sorento, Italy – the Leonado da Vinci program, the Web for Handicapped in Integrated Technical Environment (WHITE) 2003-2005;
Athens Technical University – the Leonardo da Vinci program, the Believe project for distance learning for the blind by electronic means with specific programs – on-going;
The Center for Rehabilitation of the Blind in Plovdiv and other partners from Italy and the Netherlands – the Leonardo da Vinci program, the Protect project, for establishing quality indicators in the education of the visually impaired – in progress.
The projects funded by the Delegation of the European Commission in Romania and the current ones were added, in partnership with the National Authority for Persons with Handicap (ANPH).
The lack of an organized system to address this disadvantaged social category is one of the causes for which there is no more accurate statistical data on the magnitude of the phenomenon. About 5% of blind people see nothing, the rest with a partial view. Some can find out about one meter of vehicle registration number, and others can see the difference between light and dark, shadows and moving objects. Although they do not live in a total darkness, vision problems affect their ability to cope with the challenges of an ordinary day.
Dependent on their families, who have to help them in the most elementary life situations, many blind people fail to move independently and find a job. Lack of independence and absence of work, which would help them live a dignified life closer to normality, are the two major problems raised by those with visual impairments. Of course, they are not the only problems of the blind. The list could be complemented by the attitude of the "peers"; the careless attitude of the authorities; difficulties in integrating into school curricula, blind children being marginalized and ironied by colleagues and even by teachers sometimes; street holes that create inconveniences, from small sprain to serious injuries; lack of funds for printing Braille textbooks for blind children.
At the beginning of the school year 2009-2010, the Ministry of Education had not allocated the necessary money for printing special textbooks. Of the 1,600 pupils with special needs, only 600 use such materials. There are no schools for the training of blind guides for the blind: "the guide dog in Romania can not be a living assistance unless the wild dogs in the street – especially in the urban area – are eliminated." There was also dissatisfaction with the small number of free tickets offered to the visually impaired. Also, on some routes, blind people have encountered difficulties in using their travel vouchers under the law.
Until the end of 2009, there was no rehabilitation center for people with visual disabilities in Romania. Even in schools for the blind, mobility and orientation courses are limited to teaching children how to handle inside and in the school yard. In November last year, the doors of the first functional rehabilitation center were opened in Brașov for the visually impaired, the project being funded by European funds. The project provides assistance to 20 blind people.
The blindfold is not usually considered ill and does not consider the lack of vision as an impediment. On the contrary, in many cases it enjoys a normal life, with its joys and sadness. The perception of the fact that it is distinct from others derives rather from the way those who see it relate to the blind. Exaggerated protection from the blind for a long time will put him in a position to cope more difficult in certain situations. It will need psychological counseling to overcome the fear of going without a companion in open spaces. We do not have to see what the blind can not do, but rather what he can do in the given circumstances. Interestingly, a blind man does not hesitate to say "we'll see tomorrow" or "we've seen on television."
The degree of dependence / independence of the blind depends on those around him, the way they treat them, the self-confidence they manage or not to instil. Helped to learn to do it alone, the blind can be a man who does not depend too much on family or friends. "One of the concepts of blindness, accepted by almost all people and even many blind people, states that blindness is a disaster, a catastrophe. (…) If you consider blindness a disaster, it will be for you. This idea will dominate and destroy your life. It will dominate your thinking, relationships with people, and all your achievements, "said Thomas Bickford, author of The White Rat and employee of the Congress Library (Washington D.C.) in the National Service for the Blind and Physically Disabled.
After protected facilities providing jobs for people with disabilities were practically abolished, their associations are looking for new solutions for their members.
More than 2,000 people with disabilities were left without a job after a legislative change had practically abolished the protected units in which they worked. In search of a solution, the Arad subsidiary of the Association of the Blind proposes a Multifunctional Center to facilitate the integration into the labor market of people with disabilities. (Ilarion, 2016, p. 133)
The center would help the blind learn to live independently, with minimal support from an attendant, allowing them to present themselves in front of an employer almost the same as a person without disabilities. In addition, he proposes to qualify them for masseur, one of the jobs where the productivity of a visually impaired employee is the same or even better than an employee who does not face such obstacles.
Not all technologies are useful to any of us, and their price remains quite high, especially for the possibilities of the blind, which does not allow them to find out which one is best suited to them. That is why a center where they can experiment with various assistive tools, learn how to use them and acquire a required qualification on the labor market is particularly useful. Many employers are afraid to hire blind people because they can not imagine them as independent people, and our solution is to change this perception.
If the human resource is already identified, the center's funding is momentarily deadlocked after September, just a few months after its inception, the association had to shut down its own protected unit, whose profit was to be used for that purpose. The solution could come from the private sector, the association already identifying an Electrica Group grant program that encourages sustainable initiatives by Romanians who want to support their community to grow, grants that could be a viable solution. Also, several companies have expressed their willingness to provide their own employees with massage services contracted by the association or to encourage their employees to target the 2% of the income tax to the center in 2019.
2. International market research
Africa
In Africa, about 57,100,000 blind people were registered. (https://www.isi-web.org/)
The United Nations Compendium, referring to the internal consistency of research results, notes that a large number of research shows that people visually impaired in Africa are on average less educated, have a lower socio-economic status and are more numerous in rural or poor environments than non-disabled people.
The same source states that, analyzing case studies, they show that high disability rates are associated with the following: high illiteracy, poor nutrition, low birth weight, higher unemployment, and low occupational mobility. It even comes to the assertion that, in many respects, the disability rate is a socio-economic indicator, an indicator of poverty or development. It is unique in that it estimates the quality of subsistence life or those who manage to avoid mortality and continue to live, albeit with significant changes in functions.
Caregivers of a visually impaired are most often family members, typically mothers or members of the family of sex feminine, caring for a child with severe disabilities can add to the effort mother's household, and she can not handle other activities like a job. Disability does not only affect the individual, it also has an impact on the whole community. The costs of excluding people with disabilities from participation in community activities is very high, a situation that should improved by the company, especially in the case of the persons taking care of them. Exclusion can lead to unproductiveness and loss of human potential.
Europa
In the European Union (EU), many people suffer from a visual disability, from mild to severe, and a total of about 80 million people can not often participate fully in social life and economic because of physical and behavioral barriers. The poverty level of people with disabilities is 70% above the recorded average, which is partly due to their limited access to employment. (https://www.isi-web.org/)
More than one-third of people over the age of 75 suffer from certain handicaps that partially restrict their opportunities, and over 20% suffer from a form of disability that considerably limits them. In addition, it is expected that these figures will increase as the EU population ages.
The EU and its Member States have a strong mandate to improve the social and economic situation of visually impaired people:
Article 1 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (Charter) states the following: "Human dignity is inviolable, it must be respected and protected." Article 26 states that "the Union recognizes and respects the right of persons with disabilities to take measures to ensure their autonomy, social and professional integration, and participation in community life." In addition, Article 21 prohibits any discrimination on grounds of disability.
The Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) requires the Union to combat any discrimination on grounds of disability in the definition and implementation of its policies and actions (Article 10) and gives it the power to adopt legislation to combat such discrimination 19).
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (United Nations Convention), the first legally binding human rights instrument to which the EU and the Member States are party, will soon be applicable throughout the EU. The United Nations Convention requires states that are party to it to protect and ensure that persons with disabilities can enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms.
According to the United Nations Convention, persons with disabilities are those with long-term physical, mental, intellectual or sensory disabilities who, in interaction with different obstacles, can prevent their full and effective participation in social life on an equal footing with others.
The Commission will work with the Member States to remove obstacles to a barrier-free Europe, based on the recent resolutions of the European Parliament and the Council. This strategy provides a framework for action at European level, which, together with national actions, is designed to address the different issues of men, women and children with disabilities.
The full economic and social participation of people with disabilities is key to the success of the EU 2020 Strategy in promoting smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Building a non-excluded society offers market opportunities and stimulates innovation. The fact of giving everyone access to services and products is a major economic asset given the demand from an increasing number of older consumers.
For example, the EU's assistive devices market (with an estimated annual value of over EUR 30 billion) continues to be fragmented and the devices are expensive. Neither policy and regulatory frameworks, nor the development of products and services reflect the needs of people with disabilities adequately. Numerous goods and services, as well as, to a large extent, buildings and equipment built are not yet sufficiently accessible.
The economic downturn has had a negative impact on the situation of people with disabilities, so the need to act is even more urgent. The strategy aims to improve the lives of individuals, and to bring greater benefits to society and the economy without unduly burdensome industry and administrations.
While visually impaired or visually impaired people are least likely to find a job in Romania, the situation in Sweden is the best in Europe, with an unemployment rate of less than 60% for this minority group. (https://www.isi-web.org/)
However, the situation of the unemployed on the labor market is not perfect even in Sweden. Only 13% of people with visual impairments employed in the Scandinavian country have a full-time job.
It is unclear whether people with visual disabilities choose to work with a reduced standard or if their employers prioritize them.
The problem of blind and partially sighted people on the labor market is also influenced by their access to information. Despite technological advances, such as text-to-speech applications that can read digital texts to blind people, people with visual disabilities do not have the same chances of self-improvement.
Only a fraction of the total number of web sites are accessible to blind or visually impaired people, and people with visual disabilities have access to only 5% of all published books.
America
In America there were approximately 18,700,000 people reporting visual impairments. (https://www.isi-web.org/)
In this context the term vision loss refers to individuals who reported that they have trouble seeing, even when wearing glasses or contact lenses, as well as to individuals who reported that they are blind or unable to see at all. This estimate pertains to a nationally representative sample of the non-institutionalised civilian population 18 years of age and over.
Projecting to 2020: blindness over age 40: 1.6 million (70% increase) and Low Vision over age 40: 3.9 million (70% increase). It is noted that the projection of a large increase in the prevalence of blindness and low vision is driven by the numbers of persons 80 years and older who made up only 7.7% of the study population but accounted for 69% of the observed blindness. The very old are the fastest growing segment of the US population.
Projecting to 2050: cases of early AMD are expected to double by 2050 from 9.1 million to 17.8 million for people 50 and over, cases of diabetic retinopathy among people 65 and older are expected to quadruple by 2050 from 2.5 million to 9.9 million.
3. SWOT analysis for similar products on the market
The Dot clock
STRENGTHS:
A new innovative product
The product is designed in order to satisfy visual impaired people`s needs
Good knowledge of our market and customers
WEAKNESSES:
Lack of marketing expertise
Lack of large funds
OPPORTUNITIES:
Niched market (on national and international level)
Attract investors to this business
THREATS:
Powerful competition on the market (Google, Microsoft, OrCam etc)
Competitors have a superior access to channels of distribution.
The bionic eye
STRENGTHS:
Low estimated price, in comparison with our competitors
Professional and creative software programmers
Active support of the National Association for Visual Impaired persons
WEAKNESSES:
Location of our business (if we were in a more developed country it would have been easier to obtain investments)
OPPORTUNITIES:
Possibilities to internationalize the business, taking into consideration the lack of innovations and devices for this category of people
Undeveloped market in terms of technologies and innovation for visual impaired persons
THREATS:
Users may be skeptic in using a new device (especially old people) and paying a monthly fee for services
Not finding and investor
Chapter 3: Presenting the company and product: AiVission
1. AiVission product
AiVission wants to create a hardware and software device which will help the visually impaired persons. The intended outcome is to help the visually impaired persons to increase the autonomy, the social skills, and the confidence.
Hardware part:
The device is a pair of glasses filled with sensors and photo camera, which will analyze the environmental data and translate it into vocal instructions. Those instruction will guide the impaired person and will help him to better interact with the world.
This device will be constructed by the following hardware components:
Processing unit
Mobile phone
Development hardware board
2 photo cameras
Several sensors
1 microfone
1 pair of headset
There will be also a software components:
Client side
Server side (cloud)
Most of the processing will require a high amount of computational power
Billing / Authorization / Authentication for every client
Software functionalities:
Detection and recognition of the known persons and friends. This functionality will increase and ease the social part. Also the recognition of the known persons will increase self confidence.
2. Emotion detection.
Misinterpretation of the emotions when talking with a person is one of the greatest communication obstacle. It lower the conversation efficiency and even block it.
This functionality will address this issue. In future this feature can help even persons with normal vision.
3. Read a book / magazine / subtitle
The reduced or lack of possibility to have access to a high variety of books or magazine, is one of the major impediment an impaired person has to increase the knowledge, and because of that they understand little the environment where they are leaving, the technology and the surrounding environment.
This functionality will have a positive effect to improve the quality of life.
4. Ability to recognize objects
Let’s think for a moment we are in supermarket and we want to buy a white chocolate or a bottle of coca cola. Let’s imagine another situation, we are the bus station and we wait for the specific bus which will take us to the destination. For a normal person this is common activity, but for a impaired person this task is an impossible one without the help from another healthy person.
The recognition of the objects, will offer a great help and open new possibilities to a new and a more independent life. Even if we are talking to the recognition of pharmacy, or a bus, or a book, or a specific item of food, this functionality will definitely change the life of an impaired person.
5. Ability to recognize road sign
This limitation affects the personal safety of an impaired person. This people is not capable to cross by himself the roads, to identify a crosswalk and to walk to the urban jungle.
This capability will help and it will increase his autonomy.
6. Ability to recognize traffic lights (red or green lights)
7. Ability to “see” the obstacle when they are closer than several meters to a wall or something that might hurt them.
In this moment the only way to avoid the obstacle is to use a stick to detect the obstacles. This device will analyze the environment and will alert the user. This will work for a leader, or a stationary car, or a wall, or any other obstacle, this functionality will increase the confidence and the independence of the impaired person.
Innovative part of the product:
In this chapter we will analyze why this product is innovative and what are the advantages that makes it a disruptive innovation. We will compare the price, feature and characteristics of AiVission with biggest competitors.
Google launched on the market in 2014, for the development only, a pair of glasses for augmented reality. The device cost was 800$. In 2015 they close this project. It is expected in feature, Google will release a similar product, and the cost might be similar to the previous product. The sales cost will be around 1500$ – 2000$.
Beside this cost, the company who will use Google for the development platform, will have to use also the Google Vission project. Right now the computational cost for an impaired person would be around 50$ / day. This means a cost of 1500$ per month. It is expected, Google will decrease the price for the Vission software platfor, but still is a very high price per month for an impaired person.
The biggest downside of this product is the high latency of the response time. We are expecting to be greater than 2s.
The software quality is expected to be very good.
OrCam
Sales cost is 2500$. They now entered to the testing phase with people from UK.
This product is the direct competitor to AiVission, regarding the similarities of hardware and software.
The biggest advantage is the low response time, below 500ms.
AiVission
The sales cost of the hardware device will be around 300$.
There will be a monthly subscription cost cost, which will vary between 10$ – 50 $.
The biggest advantage is the low response time, below 500ms.
The reason because this is a wow product:
The reduce cost, is making it attractive for adopting it in mass even in the emergent countries.
Lack of a similar product on the national and international market.
Analysys if the product have a chance to work:
2. Vision / Mission
The vision and mission of the organization, formulated with clarity and realism, is the safest way to get the support and involvement of the various categories of beneficiaries in the company's actions.
We provide you with a detailed explanation of the concepts as well as a tested and verified process of creating the two strategic tools.
VISION
By the term vision is meant the representation of what the organization desires to be in the future, an ideal state of it. It assumes dynamic thinking and is capable of evaluating in the long run the real development chances of the organization.
A good vision that captures the most important elements of the organization must be characterized by the following:
The ideal state that is projected in the future will be based on the company's current reality.
To generate an attitude of trust in the future and in the organization's ability to develop in the sense of transforming the proposed vision into facts.
The vision must be the result of the work of the entire management team / of all the founding members in the case of small firms.
It enables all members of the organization to identify their interests and thus build the necessary motivation to fulfill it.
Can be shared by all members of the organization.
The vision answers the question: What do I want to be?
MISSION
In short, the mission of an organization communicates what the organization is and what it wants to do for this society.
The mission statement should take into account 3 factors:
The consumer's needs or what he / she does
Consumer groups, beneficiaries
The technologies used or how we meet the needs of consumers
To achieve performance, businesses need clear and proper expression of the mission.
The mission answers the question: How do we achieve the vision?
The difference between vision and mission of the organization:
The term vision has a wider scope of coverage and a prolonged temporal horizon while the mission is based on elements of present moment – concepts, theories. While the vision expresses an ideal state, the mission expresses an evolution towards this state.
The vision focuses on the organization's internal image and management aspirations, while the mission focuses on the organization's external image and decision-makers or decision-makers.
Vision:
We are the promoter of the development of all our beneficiaries: clients, collaborators, community and last but not least our own team.
Mission:
We develop, deliver, implement and evaluate innovative products and solutions.
3. Strategy
The strategy adopted by the firm that is being analyzed is the growth strategy – the significant expansion of the volume of activity, which normally determines the growth of turnover.
Reasons why the analyst firm promotes growth strategy:
– in some business areas, with a certain dynamics of change, only large companies can survive.
– the interest of the shareholders, the investors is that the company develops because this increases the value of the stock exchange (quote) on the stock exchange and the hope of recovering them.
The downsizing strategy aims to reduce the volume of activity or operations of AiVission in various proportions in order to redress a negative trend or to solve some critical situations in which the company is located.
Also, AiVission is trying to use the low-priced strategy at large: maximum quality, modern technology at minimal prices.
In the contemporary economy, learning and knowledge have become key success factors at international level, and intangible resources are of vital importance. The competition between today's firms has shifted largely from tangible resources (capital, raw materials, land, machinery and equipment, etc.) to intangible resources, where elements such as knowledge and the ability to use them (knowledge-based management ) have a crucial role. Knowledge has become the core resource of companies, the way they gain power, prestige and wealth in the economy and in modern society. Generating, acquiring and using knowledge – to name just a few of the knowledge transformation processes – are extremely important for sustainable economic, social and cultural development.
This trend applies equally to individuals, organizations, public institutions, companies, regions or even states. The modern economic environment is characterized by volatility, high employee incomes, and rapid international change in politics or competition. As a result, modern organizations can not compete on the market without skilled managers or employees. Therefore, the methods that companies use to manage and use knowledge, as well as the processes and technologies specific to their field of activity, including computer technology, are extremely important.
No economic-managerial activity has attracted more attention in the last decade than knowledge-based management. The same specialist, however, notes that at the same time there are many inconsistencies, controversies and radically different views: some specialists consider it a form of information management, but under a more demanding name; other specialists are addressing a system to facilitate access to distributed information resources; critics simply disregard him, considering him to be only a fleeting managerial fashion.
The knowledge and ability to effectively create, access and use them has long been an instrument of innovation, competition and the achievement of economic success, as well as a key factor in economic and social development. However, a number of dramatic changes in recent years have greatly increased the importance of knowledge and knowledge in terms of generating competitive advantage. The ability to process and transmit information globally and instantaneously has increased exponentially in recent years due to the combined effect of scientific progress in distributed computing and computing, but also to exacerbating competition, enhancing innovation in all its forms, and reducing operating costs in global communications networks .
As the barriers to accessing process, product or market knowledge reduce (distance, geography features, costs), knowledge and knowledge are increasingly becoming the key to competitiveness, both locally and globally. At the same time, the ease in the efficient use of information and knowledge flows makes it possible, and I would say, very necessary, a stronger link between R & D and downstream innovation, an increased innovation rate and the reduction of product life cycle in more important sectors of the economy. Even in more traditional economic sectors – agriculture and manufacturing – knowledge is much easier and quicker to access globally, and so its competitive value is increased.
The impact of knowledge-based economy on society and public authorities is no less profound or important. With increasing access to information, the pressure on governments to be more transparent, accountable and participatory increases. At the same time, governments' ability to access and control information, unequal access to information and knowledge across sectors of society may in certain circumstances lead to increased inequality and its strengthening between political and social elites on the one hand and the majority of the population, on the other hand. Unfair access to education and training can perpetuate and deepen inequality.
The concept of a knowledge-based economy and its variants – "knowledge-based economy", "new economy" or "intangible economy" – is widely used and increasingly in a variety of contexts and in a few meanings. That is why I consider it useful to present a series of considerations regarding the use of the term in the literature.
The knowledge-based economy is also deeply rooted in what has come to be seen as the key role of the high-tech industry in boosting growth and gaining competitive advantage. It is also driven by the increasing importance of the application of information and communication technologies and the spread of digital technologies across different types of activity. So, in other words, initially the knowledge-based economy was approached as a sum of high-tech and telecom industries. These remain an important component, but at present the knowledge-based economy is approached in a broader sense and is seen as more comprehensive than simply the whole of the high technology and telecommunications industries.
Most specialist papers point to the difference between knowledge and information or between explicit and tacit knowledge. Without denying them importance, I believe that in the knowledge-based economy, both types of knowledge are important, suffering from various conversion processes, as we will see in the following chapters.
In other papers, there is a difference between the knowledge found in physical products and which can therefore be used or applied by others to add value to the production process and to the knowledge embodied in the form of human capital.
The process of innovation, the generation and, in particular, the application of knowledge to generate new products or services, also occupy a central place in literature dedicated to the knowledge-based economy. However, more recent works tend to address the wider concept, not only to innovate.
An economy based on global knowledge creates simultaneously significant opportunities and major threats for all countries, but especially for those struggling to combat widespread poverty and create sustainable development, or those that are in the process of transition from centralized forms of economic organization to democratic forms.
From the examination of the specialized literature dedicated to the knowledge-based economy, we find that there are significant differences between the different specialists of this phenomenon. The causes of this state of fact are, in my opinion, two: the relative novelty of the concept, which did not allow a better crystallization of the phenomenon; the basic training of those who developed the definitions. Thus, different accents of computer scientists, economists and sociologists can be seen.
Daniele Archibugi and Bengt AkéLundvall define the new economy as an economy dominated more by global influences and speed, often real-time, communications and information, regardless of distance. They believe that its basic features are globalization and digitization. Unfortunately, the authors of this definition approach the new economy almost only from the perspective of computerization and internationalization. They do not make the essential distinction between information and knowledge, without which the new economy refers less to the actual economy (except for the international dimension) and more to the development of communications within economic activities.
Charles Leadbeater believes that the knowledge-based economy is not just a description of high-tech industries. It describes a set of new sources of competitive advantage that can apply to all sectors, all businesses and all regions, from agriculture and retail to software and biotechnology.
There are four essential and interdependent components of any strategy to create a knowledge-based economy:
1. Creating an economically stimulating and institutional environment that encourages widespread and effective use of local and global knowledge in all sectors of the economy that fosters entrepreneurship and which allows and supports the economic and social transformations generated by the knowledge revolution;
2. Creating a society based on qualified, creative and flexible individuals, providing opportunities for lifelong learning and quality learning for all, and a flexible and adequate public and private funding system;
3. Building a dynamic IT & C infrastructure as well as a competitive and innovative IT & C sector that promotes IT and communications solutions and services available to all sectors of the economy and society. They will not only include high-end services such as the Internet and mobile telephony but also other elements of a developed information society such as radio, television and other media, computers and other storage devices , the processing and use of information, but also a range of communications services.
4. Create an effective innovation system including businesses, research centers, universities, think tanks, and other organizations that access and use the growing world of knowledge, adapting it to local needs, to create new products and services.
4. Organizational structure
Below is the AiVission organigram:
As we can see, AiVission's president has 22 employees. The employees are evaluated periodically at 6 months.
As an expression of the formal organization, the organizational structure of the company being analyzed is based on norms, rules, principles and official documents.
The structure of the enterprise, the component of the company's general structure, reflects the "enterprise anatomy"; the way of designing, detailing and implementing it directly influences the activities required by the objectives of the enterprise.
The organizational structure is the set of persons, organizational subdivisions (departments, compartments) and their relations oriented towards the achievement of the predetermined objectives of the enterprise.
The appreciation of the organizational structure is a process of knowing, understanding, explaining the existing situation by analyzing in detail the factors that influence its state:
Enterprise development strategy;
Type and complexity of production;
Enterprise size;
Quality of Human Resources;
Mutations occurring in the company's external environment;
Legal framework and business status.
As a whole, the organizational structure has two major parts:
the functional structure (leadership)
the operational structure (production, conception)
The functional structure represents the entire technical, economic, commercial, administrative and management functions and departments (services, offices), the way they are formed and grouped together, and the relationships between them necessary for the proper development of the managerial process and the execution processes.
As a whole, the functional structure is approached as a system and comprises:
I. Components – station, function, compartment
II. Organizational relationships
III. The order of components (level, hierarchical level, hierarchical weight)
Functional structure
The post is the simplest organizational subdivision and can be defined by all the objectives, tasks, tasks, competencies and associated responsibilities that are regularly exercised by a person employed in the enterprise.
The post is the tool through which the competencies and the specialized knowledge necessary for employment are appreciated.
The evaluation, salary, rewards for the staff are based on the attributions, the tasks stipulated in the job description and the way of accomplishing them.
Objectives justify the rationale of its establishment and operation. In order to achieve them, the job holder is given appropriate attributions, tasks, competencies and responsibilities.
Pregnancy is a simple work process or a basic component of a complex work process that presents operational autonomy. It is usually performed by one person.
Pregnancy is the most dynamic component of the job. Thus, the qualitative changes that take place within them lead to changes in the organizational structure.
Attribution is the set of precisely outlined tasks that are performed periodically or continuously by employees who have specific knowledge of a particular field and who contribute to the achievement of specific objectives.
Share hierarchical
Hierarchical share is the number of people that can be coordinated directly and effectively by a manager. The efficiency of the manager's activity is influenced to a large extent by the number of direct subordinates whose activity is to be directed, coordinated by the manager.
The number of subordinates can not be small because in this case there is not a proper load of the manager a large number of management positions within the firm. this number can not be too large because the coordination and control of all the subordinates can not be ensured due to the excessive load of the manager.
The control area must be coordinated according to the factors that influence the number, duration and complexity of the subordinate leadership relationships.
Main factors:
1) Nature of problems and works that are executed and which can be: conception (research, studies, design, analysis) – situation where the control area is lower
the degree of independence of the tasks of the contractors – in this case the hierarchical share may be higher if they are not linked to each other by the nature of the tasks, tasks, and works executed.
2) Territorial dispersion of subordinate workplaces
If the staff is grouped in the same place (geographically, work area) – the control area may be higher, in the case of subordinates being dispersed on larger geographic areas.
3) Organizational capacity and level of training of the manager and subordinates.
The higher they are, the greater the control area.
These factors act differently at different hierarchical levels. Thus, at higher levels, the hierarchical weight is lower and at lower levels it is higher.
It is appreciated that the optimal number of subordinates for managers at higher levels is between 5-6.
The size of the hierarchical weight influences the configuration, the organizational structure both in terms of number of compartments and the number of hierarchical levels / steps. The hierarchical step is the whole organizational subdivision placed on horizontal lines at the same distance from the top managers of the firm.
Factors influencing the number of hierarchical levels:
– the size of the firm
– diversity of activity and attributions, complexity of production factors with direct proportional influence on the number of hierarchical levels
– the competence of managers influencing inversely the number of hierarchical levels.
5. Microsoft project plan
Microsoft
There is an alliance between Microsoft and PivotHead. They want to develop a similar product. The hardware cost is around 300$ and the cost for the software platform is expected to be similar to Google platform.
The biggest downside of this product is the high latency of the response time. We are expecting to be greater than 2s.
The software quality is expected to be very good.
6. Presenting the technical solution
Develop the hardware part
In this moment we have a hardware prototype. In order to sell it on the market, we still need a final hardware design.
The cost of designing this hardware is 10.000e.
Marketing
In order to sell this product on the market, we need to associate with a business angel or an investment fund. The marketing is very important, given the fact this product is intended for international market.
Resource
We will need the following resource in order to complete this project:
Financial: 70.000e
To support the employees and the marketing costs
Employees:
3 programmers
1 marketer
1 project manager
Finance
The hardware host is expected to be 75$ per piece, and will be sold with 350$.
The sales will increase to a rate of 100 pieces of glasses per day. In 6 months we will sell 18.000 intelligent glasses. The revenue for selling the hardware will be around 1.000.000$ per month.
The revenue from the monthly subscription will be around 45.000 $ / month from 3000 customers.
Critics
The big corporation will release on the next time frame a similar product
The used technology is not a mature one
The AiVission company is a small company and it will not be able to support such a big project
7. Presenting a video trial of the MVP solution
To launch this product on the market we have to solve the following tasks:
Software implementation: from prototype to product version 1.0
In this moment there is prototype that is working.
In the first software version we have to select the most important features the customers want.
A detailed analysis shows we need around 300 man/days of programming to be able to move the product from prototype (MVP) to a functional product which can be sold.
From the HR perspective, 3 seniors programmers would develop this product in 6 months.
The implementation cost is 3000e/programer * 3 programmers * 6 months = 60.000e.
Chapter 4: Risk assessment and cost benefit analysis
1. Obtaining financial resources for the project
Sales prediction:
After the first project will be on the market, we are expecting to sell 100 devices / day.
The average subscription rate is expected to be 20$/months.
After 6 months, AiVission will sell 18.000 hardware devices.
18.000 * 350$ = 6.300.000 $ sales
The incoming sales from subscription is: 18.000 * 10 = 180.000$ / month
This will allow us to start hiring 6 new senior software developers who will develop the next product release.
Financial analysis scenarios:
The project receive financial support from venture capitals, the following plan is applied:
RACI matrix:
2. Risk analysis
Assuming the prototype is up and running, what will the company do in the following scenarios:
One of the big giants will ship on market the same product. We are going to assume the functionality will work better on them.
Will it be enough to start a battle on the price?
Google have now google glass, which could be used as a platform to develop multiple software for blind peoples. Being an open platform, it is expected that software to be developed faster and better than the AiVission project.
On the other hand, google glasses is intended for augmented reality software. The extra functionality those glasses it has, the ability to project the augmented reality on the lens, justify the extra price the customer needs to pay. Right now a pair of google glasses costs 1500$, and it is available only for development. As time will pass, it is expected those glasses to cost less.
AiVission will be sold with 350$. The price difference is expected to be a decisive factor.
The software part is also very important.
Many companies who will join the Google platform, will be able to develop functionalities for blind peoples. The development api will be easy to use and it is expected that lots of applications to be created. One major issue for the app developer is the price they have to pay for processing power to Google. Right now they have to pay 0.05$ for each photo processing to Google.
It is expected a blind people will need more than 500 photo processing each day. This is a cost of 25$/ day for app developer. Per month the cost is 750$. This price is prohibitive for the majority of the customers.
AiVission will build its own artificial intelligence network, and they will be able to offer a better price than Google has.
The target is to provide a variety of functionalities at different costs. The basic monthly subscription will be 15$, and the price is increased depending the number of functionalities the customers want.
What are you going to do with the after sales warranty?
Given the facts AiVission will sell it’s own hardware, one of the most important aspect is the after sales warranty. This is also one of the biggest risk of the project, because if we are going to develop our own glasses, instead of buying them from other companies, we would be in a difficult situation of handling the high cost of after sales warranty.
This is the main reason we would like to do a partnership with a company that develop a similar hardware that can be included in our project.
Will AiVission be able to find a sponsor to launch this project on the market?
In order to find an investor, we need to finish the MVP product.
This hardware device is intended for international market. Is AiVission ready to go international? What is his strategy?
The strategy is to find a venture capital fund, who will have the international exposure and the distribution channel to the international market.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and recommendation
I recommend AiVission to continue investing in innovation.
Innovation can exist in any sector of an organization, but also at all stages of the life cycle of a product or service as well as across the entire value chain created by the organization.
Innovation Management supports organizations to develop their ability to recognize the new technologies that can be applied in their business sector, giving them the opportunity to become competitive in a market with great development potential.
The importance of innovation is closely linked to survival, often expressed as the only strategy that can be used in development.
So this area of innovation is supported by numerous standards. Standards representing a document, established by common agreement and subsequently approved by a certified body. It is used for common use, repeatedly by rules, guidelines, or features for the activities that result from applying to the organization, in order to achieve an optimal order of order in a context. Standards are used by industry as an indisputable reference that can simplify and clarify the commercial relationships between economic partners, most of them optional.
The UK's most important innovation standard is: British Standard BS 7000-1: 2008; it is a guide to innovation management, but also to the design and development of product competitiveness. The general innovation management principles of this standard are applicable to organizations in industries such as manufacturing, process, services and construction, as well as public and non-profit sectors.
Due to the increasingly rapid growth of products and services and the intuitive intelligence of man, everything evolves and continually transforms each entity through an infinite number of innovations, which is why the development of innovation standards plays an important role in the cycle of innovation. life of an organization but also of a society, these coming to support and educate entities. So in a very short time, economic globalization has changed the world economic succession by generating new challenges but also new opportunities.
Thus, Romania can not be competitive in this new context than by fulfilling the condition of becoming more innovative and becoming more receptive by guaranteeing efficiency and support for consumers' needs and preferences.
Organizations should always be open to the new. However, critical decisions have to be taken over time, such as the magnitude, and the way the change is introduced. Often, these are among the most difficult business decisions.
Products tend to be improved over time. In a concept of an existing product there are periods when a series of minor changes are introduced. After a while, these changes are consolidated in major changes (such as a new concept).
Such continuous improvement could include sporadic innovation that can exploit current configuration and perfomance.
Occasionally, gradual changes in performance are achieved through advances in existing, ergonomic technology, business practices, or the introduction of new technologies and procedures. Such stages of radical innovations tend to be followed by stable stages where incremental improvements are introduced until radical change becomes necessary.
Radical stages could announce new generations of products, although in reality most innovations are sub-innovations that do not transform the general product even when one or more components are substantially altered.
Innovation is the transposition of new knowledge into social and economic benefits resulting from complex interactions between several actors forming part of a system in which they form an environment that contains research-development institutes, firms, organizations, financiers, but also networks that are formed by collaborations.
Essentially, innovation adds value to all products, services, or concepts. Anyone can innovate, anything can be innovated, including a storage space, a store, a service or object.
In general, innovation is understood as the introduction of new methods or things, but it is more than that, it is the incorporation, combining or synthesis of knowledge in original, revealed and valuable products, processes or services.
The role of innovation is to improve manufacturing processes, reduce raw material consumption, energy consumption, replace existing products or services with some more useful and performing, increase market share for companies, and increase the quality of products, processes and services by developing new concepts.
The result of any innovative idea is to get profit from its implementation.
Innovation is a multidimensional concept that not only covers the technological approach, it also includes the OSLO version 3 of 2005 (according to IEDM, 2011):
– product innovation
– process innovation
– organizational innovation
– marketing innovation
– product innovation
This type of innovation is based on a new idea that may or may not be based on revolutionary technology or other types of material or components.
The product may have a new design that may involve manufacturing changes or influence ergonomic aspects. Even if the product did not have any change, it can benefit from new services that accompany it, making it more useful, even with minimal changes. The best example is the internet service. Nowadays any device is accompanied by the Internet giving it a special utility.
Product innovation is the most common form of innovation. This may apply to different levels of complexity, of which the most significant would be (according to IEDM, 2011):
– Change of concept (functional or technological), based on a new idea or a new technology that could be supported;
– Making a product with better features than the previous one. Rarely, switching from one product to another occurs at once, most often new product items appear and are tested on improved versions of the old one;
– a new design, which often means more than just a change of shape or appearance, can combine ergonomic aspects or manufacturing changes;
– New services accompanying the product or finding new uses of the product, as such or with minimal changes.
– process innovation
Process innovation is to improve your organization's performance. This type of innovation involves changes in manufacturing processes that are driven by new investments, the ability to refine existing materials, and to capitalize on the experience gained in the process.
The product does not suppress major changes in this case, but can be more reliable or cheaper. On the other hand, this type of innovation can open a line of product development, a line that has so far been inaccessible. Thirdly, process innovation is not very noticeable by competing firms, which allows the innovating firm to enjoy some of the benefits it has gained.
In the process innovation we can distinguish:
• Technological flow innovations, targeting flow operations and chaining them. Automating assembly in the automotive industry, replacing masonry racking, linking the machine with numerical control to the designer, etc. can be good examples in this regard.
• In-process manufacturing innovations that completely change the manufacturing process: the glass manufacturing process, the Tetrapak packaging, the word processing processors.
• Incremental innovation that improves results without the need for new knowledge, two examples known as Moore's law in computer science and the reduction of specific coke consumption in the furnace.
– organizational innovation
It is represented by the implementation of a new method of organization in the company's activities, in its external relations or in the organization of work places.
This type of innovation aims to increase the company's performance by reducing the costs of supply, administration or trading, as well as improving the productivity of the workforce through the satisfaction of the employees in the organization.
Organizational innovation is the implementation of a new organizational method in the company's business practices, in the organization of jobs or in the company's external relations.
Such an innovation aims to increase the company's performance by reducing administrative or transaction costs, improving job satisfaction (and thus labor productivity) or reducing supply costs. In general, the term "organizational innovation" refers to creating or adopting new ideas or behaviors for the organization through changes and internal adaptations of the organization that is innovating. Changes in strategy, structure, process skills, incentive or culture in innovation of the organization, reorganization of the entire organization can be introduced.
– marketing innovation
For this type of innovation, we want to implement a new marketing method involving a new product design and packaging, new sales and promotion methods.
Marketing innovation consists of implementing a new marketing method that involves significant product or packaging design changes, new sales methods, product placement, product promotion, or pricing policy. Marketing innovations are designed to better meet customer needs, track the opening of new markets, or a new positioning of company products on the market, with the goal of increasing sales for the company.
Sources of innovation
Innovation is represented by the act of enhancing the means with a new capacity to create wealth and value. It creates a means for when man finds an opportunity for improvement for something in nature to be transposed into the social and economic sphere. Regardless of the changes made, the potential to produce wealth from existing means is innovation. These may be technical or social (newspaper, insurance, hospital).
There are innovations that seem very large and can become technical virtuosity, and others with modest expectations can develop large profitable business. Successful innovators, regardless of individual motivation (money, power, curiosity, desire for fame or recognition) are trying to bring value and contribution to any developed product or service.
Many successful innovations exploit change. In its aid, systematic innovation oversees occasional sources of innovation.
These sources are also called "Peter Drucker's seven sources", where the first four sources of innovation are found in organizations (public service institutions, services, industry, etc.) and are first visible to people working in the sector LM Băloiu, Ioan Frăsineanu, Corina Frăsineanu, 2008).
These sources are, in essence, nothing but symptoms and indicators of changes that have already taken place or which can be done with little effort. The four sources are:
– unforeseen
Usually executives are not open to exploiting unforeseen success, which is often in contradiction with the policy they want to apply to the organization.
The well-known International Business Machines (IBM) succeeded in the 1950s to impose itself on the computer market because other producers did not accept the idea that they could have a utility other than inventory-based economic calculations. It has, over time, made a great invequality and power of creation in the most diverse and technological fields.
Often unexpected success is neglected, thus offering exceptional opportunities for successful innovations. It is difficult for many to accept this type of success, which is often atypical, as a source of innovation, as it brings a specific strategy to support it, followed by a change in standards and habitual habits.
But often unexpected success is not intuitive, not many who pay attention to it, its success can be used by competition, which is most likely to be a real success.
The unexpected success of being taken seriously must be staffed, capable and available, of seriousness and leadership support. If unexpected success can be avoided, the same can not be said about the unexpected failure, it can not be rejected and very little can go unnoticed.
In most cases, failures are the result of mistakes or imprudent success or incompetence in the design or execution phase. But if something does not come out as planned and designed but executed then failure brings about the fundamental change, and with it, the innovation.
So some people try to find the culprit for failure while others try to turn failure into a successful success.
– Incongruity is the mismatch between reality as it is and how it should be.
According to her, there are several kinds of mismatches such as:
– Mismatches between the economic realities of a field (lack of profit in the conditions of increasing demand, for example). Innovation must be simple and "obvious"; if it still requires research and new knowledge, it may not be time for the application. Examples: private health insurance, mini-mills, transfers of services from hospitals to places that do not require expensive facilities etc.
– Mismatches between the reality of a field and the assumptions made about it, resulting from misguided efforts. Example of innovations: Commercial container with containers loaded at the shore.
– Mismatches between the efforts in a field and the values, the expectations of the beneficiaries. Examples: Particular forms of insurance – sells peace, value. The expectations of the manufacturer and the manufacturer are different.
– Internal mistakes in the rhythm and logic of a process. It is usually within the reach of those inside the domain.
– The needs of the process are due to the changes required by the modification of requests and optimizations
Innovation is often based on the necessity of the process, focusing most on tasks on the situation, improving methods, replacing weak links and redesigning processes. So when this occurs, it is accepted very quickly.
Once the need for the process is found, it should be tested according to a complete set of criteria and depending on the objections that appear.
– Changes in the structure of the field or markets are represented by other requests or other methods.
This kind of change takes most of the people unprepared. Most often there are changes in the structure of the industry or in the structure of the market, where on a relatively stable background there are beneficial opportunities for innovation.
The second set of sources of innovation involves changes outside the organization or domain:
– Demographics of population changes through the important consequences of education, labor and requirements.
– Changes in receptivity, mood and understanding. Such innovations are found in both food and fashion. This source may be based on the risk of prematurely exploiting a change in the perception of reality. Synchronicity is an essential element in terms of this innovation innovation. Preferably in the beginning innovation is good to be small and specific.
– New knowledge, both in the academic field and in the field. The underlying innovation of this knowledge requires a long training period. Often they are not based solely on one factor but on the diversification of knowledge from technological, scientific and other fields. For the successful acquisition of this knowledge, it is necessary to analyze all the necessary factors, regardless of whether it is about knowledge, social, economic or perceptional factors.
Starting from the idea that innovation is the key to success, more and more companies attach great importance to innovation, applied research and technology transfer, thus becoming a factor of competitiveness. The competitive advantages are volatile, difficult to obtain but much more difficult to maintain and consolidate.
Customers are ranked favorably or unfavorably by organizations according to their performance and innovations.
Innovation is a source of gaining and enhancing performance in a competitive market. Sustainable competitive advantage is the most difficult to maintain due to external competition factors.
This advantage derives from the value an organization can create for its buyers. It can take the form of lower prices than competitors or the provision of unique benefits that add value more than a price increase. Thus, a competitive advantage is achieved by a company, products or superior services from a favorable consumer perspective compared to similar offers from competitors.
Innovation Management was defined as the whole of enterprise-led actions and options to foster the emergence of innovation projects, to decide on their launch and to market new products or to implement new processes in the enterprise, to increase competitiveness.
Thus innovation management is a complex management task which, due to its operative and strategic elements, determines a process of systematic change.
It consists in the economic implementation and exploitation of new ideas and discoveries. As a managerial activity, the innovation process must be planned, organized, directed and controlled.
Innovations are usually not a real success, not so long as they are happening in an organization by chance. For successful innovation, it needs to be prepared and implemented in a systematic way, which is why it is necessary for an organization to have an innovation management.
Several reasons make innovation an imperative for organizations, especially small and medium sized ones. Its importance is related to survival, sometimes expressed as the only strategy for growth. Others consider innovation a vital force to motivate staff and give them a considerable sense of pride.
Research shows that the main reason for innovation is due to customers and partners. However, the observed difficulties, declared demands and complaints must be translated intelligently, helping to generate reasonable solutions.
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