Introducing Thea, the navigation assistant for the blind and visually-impaired

Thea is a concept for an artificially-intelligent, on-the-go navigation assistant.

The 3.4 million people in the U.S. who are visually impaired span a wide impairment spectrum and include those who have been blind from birth to those who become blind later in their lives. Consequently, with different levels of impairment, comes different comfort levels for traveling outside of the home or exploring new environments. As a team of interns, we asked:

“How could we design a product that could be understood and accessed by a mass population, while also celebrating individuality and addressing the specific needs of each user?”

Meet Thea, a concept for an artificially-intelligent, on-the-go navigation assistant for the blind and visually-impaired. Using the continuous positioning abilities that 5G wireless technology will enable, Thea understands the most effective way to get around and guides users accordingly.

Check out the video below, our case study, the Thea microsite, and our process blog to learn more.

Every summer, interns at Moment (which is now part of Verizon) solve real-world problems through a design-based research project. In the past, interns have worked with concepts like autonomous vehicles, Google Glass, virtual reality in education, and Voice UI.

For the 2018 summer project, the premise is to design a near-future product or service that improves mobility for people with disabilities using granular location data and other contextual information. Darshan Alatar Patel,Lauren Fox, Alina Peng, Chanel Luu Hai and Alexis Trevizo are interns at Moment/Verizon in New York. Darshan is pursuing an MFA in Interaction Design from Domus Academy in Milan, Lauren is an incoming junior at Washington University in St. Louis pursuing a BFA in Communication Design, Alina is pursuing a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) with a Design Minor at the University of Pennsylvania, Chanel is pursuing an MFA in Design & Technology at Parsons School of Design, and Alexis is pursuing a BS in Integrated Digital Media at NYU. They’re currently exploring the intersection of mobility challenges and technology in urban environments.