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Mubser - or مُبْصِر, meaning sighted - is a wearable belt and headset that helps visually impaired individuals move around and avoid obstacles. The system relies on RGB imaging and infrared depth data captured by a Microsoft Kinect to recognize objects in its way, which, when detected, prompts the belt to vibrate which alerts the wearer of an obstacle ahead. The system is also able to recognize some objects. When that happens, it will name the object to the wearer through the bluetooth connected headset. “We started with recognizing three critical objects: Staircases, doors and chairs,” explains Khaled Abo Shady, Cofounder and CEO.

The device is the first project a four man strong startup founded by Khaled (Abo Shady), currently the CEO, and Khaled Saleh Mahmoud, CTO. The team also includes Ramy Asherf Zein, Image Processing Engineer, and Ahmed Fathy El-Wekeel, Hardware Engineer. All of them are recent Computer Engineering graduates from Menoufia University.

Additionally, Khaled Abo Shadi studied Entrepreneurship & Innovation at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, USA. He is a Young African Leader, part of the African Leadership Academy, and has more than three years of experience with branding for SMEs from around the globe. Khaled Saleh Mahmoud serves as the Head of Embedded System Foundation. Ramy serves as a Demonstrator at the Computer Science & Engineering Dept at Menoufia. And Ahmed has more than three years of experience in electronics and embedded design.

The four had worked together earlier on small projects and through student activities over a five year period. But it wasn't until Khaled returned from the states later on that they decided to found a startup  and “transfer their innovation into something commercial and have an impact into people’s life.”

The idea for Mubser occurred to Khaled after he had met a fifteen years old kid who had recently lost his sight, and the idea affected him deeply. “I realized that technology should be part of the solution and should improve these people’s life,” he explains. “Then we started to think about the alternatives and introduced Mubser.”

According to the World Health Organization, there are more than 300 million individuals who are visually impaired people worldwide. In the MENA region, there are more than 8 million individuals who suffer from total blindness; 1.1 million of those are in Egypt. Every 5 seconds someone goes blinds, every five minutes a kid loses his sight.

“Our target is visually impaired people who want to feel more independent and navigate new places,” Khaled continues, “We think of Mubser as a platform for the blind, our aim is to make blind people more social and better integrated in society.”

The team was able to produce a successful Alfa prototype as a proof of concept. Currently, they are building a second one that addresses design issues of the device, as well as testing our new ideas with the help of visually impaired individuals.

They were also able to raise a pre seed fund from 10+ different organizations from around the globe, and are on their way to raise a seed fund soon that will go towards the Design For Manufacturing stage, after which they will move on to the final production.

The obstacles that Mubser faces are those that all hardware startups in Egypt face says Khaled: a lack of experienced mentors in the field of manufacturing that have practical knowledge and are able to select good manufacturing partners; and “not having enough cash” for the different stages of development hamper their progress.

But beyond the device, their plan is to be a hub for the wearable gadget in the region. “We want to introduce wearable technology in a new way that suits our culture and is focused on our needs, instead of just copying other cultures’ gadgets.” They strongly believe in social entrepreneurship. “We imagine visually impaired people using wearable gadgets that allows them to interact with the world with confidence.”

The next version of Mubser will be “more flexible.” It will incorporate smart phones and social media into the mix to allow Mubser wearers to engage more meaningfully with society.

The idea has so far been very well received, and has won numerous awards, including:

• I2P ( Idea To Product ) Brazil 2013 - 1st Place Worldwide for ICT Track.
  
• Intel Business Challenge Egypt - 1's Place
  
• The Anzisha Prize - South Africa
  
• Shaghal Competition - Nahdet el Mahrousah, Egypt
  
• Ibtiecar Competition - TIEC & Microsoft Egypt
  
• Ibasr Organized by ES ( Computer Vision based competition)
  

Mubser  is one of six startups currently being incubated by AUC’s Venture Lab. We already reviewed El Shahbander, and will be featuring the remaining four on our blog in the coming weeks. Stay tuned!