Guia-NOS and Ray-Ban Meta glasses bring audio description to blind people

The stage was set at the Algés Seafront Promenade and at NOS headquarters, where the Guia-NOS app was unveiled. Using artificial intelligence, it is designed to support and guide blind people and those with low vision, giving them greater independence in everyday life. Several blind and low-vision guests attended the launch, including Aliu and Francisco, who were selected to trial the application before its release. The project now has Meta - the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp - as a partner, helping to turn the visible world into audio description through its “smart” glasses.

What is the Guia-NOS app and how does it work?

Now available free of charge, the app describes the user’s surroundings in real time and enables interaction with the visual context captured by a mobile phone. It can identify objects, people, text and colours, among other things. Available on both iOS and Android, it offers a more convenient experience when connected to Ray-Ban Meta glasses, removing the need to hold a phone. Everything is operated using voice commands and finger controls. “As well as describing the space, it works like a super-intelligent companion,” says Julia Franz, Meta’s public relations lead.

“Guia-NOS was born from the belief that technology has a genuine impact when it is designed with people in mind. By allowing blind people to understand the environment around them more fully, this solution strengthens their independence and inclusion,” explains Margarida Nápoles, NOS’s director of social responsibility and communications.

“It was as though I had seen my father again”

Aliu went on stage and put on the glasses, which have a speaker built into each arm. He was then handed a book. Aliu looked at the book and asked, “what am I seeing?” The glasses use their built-in camera to read the page and began reading its contents aloud, allowing Aliu to read the book to the audience without using Braille, simply by looking at it. The application is responsive and fast. “It has been a truly transformative experience - getting around the Underground is easier, and I no longer accidentally pick up the wrong products at the supermarket, for example,” says Francisco Dias, who lost his sight 15 years ago. “I had not seen my father for a long time. I asked the glasses what they could see, and it was as though I had seen him again through the description the glasses gave me,” he adds.

After the presentation, several blind guests asked questions about the app and the glasses, which are not yet available to buy in Portugal. Addressing the questions, Margarida Nápoles said that the application is constantly being developed and will continue to gain new features, including real-time speech translation and film audio description. She also mentioned real-time user location, which had been considered as a feature but was not added because of privacy concerns and the continuous sharing of a person’s location.

Blind and low-vision people will be able to try the glasses at NOS Alive

This year, in partnership with Meta, NOS will make glasses available free of charge to blind people and those with low vision attending NOS Alive. Festival-goers will be able to try the application and glasses at the venue and experience the festival more independently and fully, with descriptions of what is happening around them. Those interested must register on the Guia-NOS website. To access the app, users with more than 60% visual disability need only visit the website, complete a form and confirm their status with a multi-purpose disability medical certificate. NOS promises that the process will be quick, free and entirely confidential.

Text by Xavier Clemente, edited by Pedro Miguel Coelho