The One Show
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Category
UX / UI / User Experience / CX / DX
Annual ID
OS23_IC025M
About the Work
Echolocation is a powerful sensory substitution skill where the blind use their sense of hearing to visualize surroundings. However, echolocation is not widely accessible and in previous forms takes years to learn. As a result, only 1% of the blind community have learned the skill.
Eyedar digitizes the principles of echolocation, making it an accessible and learnable skill. By leveraging the newly available LiDAR 3D technology in iPhones, Eyedar maps a user’s environment and translates it into 3D soundscapes, allowing the blind to visualize their surroundings.
Our blind-led UX team built the app with universal best practices of accessibility design and took a blind-first approach to user experience. This meant eliminating any visual interface in favor of voiceover and gestures that allow our users to use the app 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 ear, sounds like a lot of noise. But with training provided in the app, the mind becomes accustomed to the sounds, assigns meaning to them, and develops a clearer mental picture over time.
Echolocation has already shown it can positively impact the lives of users, and the only impediment to widespread adoption is the accessibility of learning the skill. Eyedar removes that. For the 99% of the population for whom echolocation was once unattainable, Eyedar and its sensory sound experience has the potential to redefine what it means to be blind.
2023 Awards
Total Points: 3
Merit
Credits
Agency
Area 23, An IPG Health Company / New York
Client / Brand
Horizon Therapeutics / Deerfield
Production Company
Dalmatian Cow / Los Angeles
Blind Pig / London
Art Director
Sydney McElwee
Copywriter
Jake Moon
Architect
Jeff Halpin
Chief Creative Officer
Tim Hawkey
Danilo Boer
Chief Technology Officer
Aaron Stack
Creative Director
Rosie Mossey
Denise Bankson
Caitlin Workman
Stefan Hanley
Sam Astigarraga
Executive Creative Director
Jason Graff
Executive Producer
Jessica Haselkorn
Anna Lopez
Jen Ma
Frank Laport
Justine Pujo
Group Creative Director
David Adler
Eduardo Tavares
Producer
Brian Binns
Jean Paulo Lasmar
User Experience Designer
Franklin Williams
Lauren Dellaquila
Senior Medical Director
Dane Lund
Technologist
Bill Hanff
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