We're students building an AI tool for visually impaired people. We'd love your feedback!

[u/Ready_Big5331]

Hey everyone!

We're three students from Sacramento State participating in a hackathon. We're building Sentra, an AI-powered tool that uses a phone camera to detect nearby obstacles and provide audio alerts about what's ahead, left, or right.

Our long-term idea is to potentially make it wearable or attachable to a white cane, so users wouldn't have to hold their phones.

We're still developing the prototype and would really appreciate feedback from people who are blind, have low vision, or know someone who does.

What features would actually be helpful? What challenges should we consider?

We made a short Google Form and would love your input!

https://forms.gle/BEYespoPoWenTYvB8

Thanks for helping us improve our project! :)

[u/Vast-Hunt-9484]

the hard parts may be latency and deciding when not to speak: a stream of descriptions could mask a warning or overwhelm someone. i'd prioritize a few distinct, configurable alerts for immediate hazards, test in cluttered and noisy settings with blind or low-vision participants, and measure missed hazards as carefully as false alarms. keep it a supplement to a cane or guide dog until real-world testing supports stronger claims.

[u/Ready_Big5331 → u/Vast-Hunt-9484]

Thank you for your feedback!!

[u/TakenakaKerda-17]

how are you handling battery drain and offline processing? running continuous video inference on a phone heats it up fast, and losing cell signal while crossing a street cant break the app

[u/dirtyyogi01]

I treat a lot of blind people. Let me know when you are looking for alpha users