ADC Awards
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Category
Science / Medical
Annual ID
ADC102_PRD010B
About the Work
Echolocation is a sensory substitution skill that enables the blind to use their sense of hearing to visualize surroundings. However, echolocation is not widely accessible and typically takes years to learn. Consequently, just 1% of the blind community have learned the skill.
Eyedar is the first mobile app that makes the life-changing ability to echolocate accessible to anyone with a smartphone. It digitizes the principles of echolocation to make the skill learnable. By leveraging newly available LiDAR scanning technology in iPhones, Eyedar maps a user’s environment and translates it into 3D soundscapes, allowing people who are blind to visualize surroundings.
Our blind-led UX team built Eyedar with universal best practices of accessibility design in mind and took a blind-first approach to UX. This meant replacing visual interfaces with universally known navigation gestures and voiceover specifically paced for people who are blind, allowing them to use Eyedar with ease.
Eyedar uses the iPhone’s LiDAR scanner to create a 3D map of a user’s environment. A vertical line array sweeps from left to right, with each point assigned a pitch from low to high, bottom to top. As the line sweeps the field, each point emits its assigned tone, with higher (close) or lower (distant) volume depending on proximity. The result is a soundscape that, to the untrained, sounds like a lot of noise. But the training provided by the app enables users’ minds to become accustomed to the sounds, assign meaning to them, and develop a clear mental picture over time.
The only impediment to the widespread adoption of echolocation is the accessibility of learning it, which Eyedar eliminates. For the 99% of the population for whom echolocation was unattainable, Eyedar and mobile experience has the potential to redefine what it means to be blind.
2023 Awards
Total Points: 9
Bronze Cube
Credits
Agency
Area 23, An IPG Health Company / New York
Client / Brand
Horizon Therapeutics / Deerfield
Production Company
Dalmatian Cow / Los Angeles
Blind Pig / London
Chief Creative Officer
Tim Hawkey
Danilo Boer
Creative Director
Rosie Mossey
Denise Bankson McNicholl
Stefan Hanley
Sam Astigarraga
Executive Creative Director
Jason Graff
Executive Producer
Anna Lopez
Group Creative Director
David Adler
Eduardo Tavares
Producer
Jean Paulo Lasmar
Product Manager
Brian Binns
Art Supervisor
Sydney McElwee
Associate Director, Experience Design
Lauren Dellaquila
Copy Supervisor
Jake Moon
EVP, Director, Experience Design
Franklin Williams
EVP, Group Director, Integrated Production
Jen Ma
Executive Broadcast Producer
Jessica Haselkorn
Medical Strategy Director
Dane Lund
Senior UX Architect
Jeff Halpin
SVP, Director, Technology
Aaron Stack
Bill Hanff
VP, Associate Creative Director
Caitlin Workman
VP, Director of IP
Justine Pujo
VP, Director, Print Production
Frank Laport
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