lusovu
aerospacial technologyLusoVu is a Portuguese company, established in 2013 as a spin-off of LusoSpace. Specialized in cutting-edge technology for aerospace application, LusoSpace exists since 2002, counting with the European Space Agency, among other great companies, as prominent customers.
One of the missions of LusoVu consists in giving a voice to people who, for various reasons, are unable to communicate. To do this, it took advantage of the rich heritage and deep knowledge of LusoSpace, in spatial context, to develop technologies for ground use. With an interdisciplinary team, LusoVu believes it can make a difference and change the lives of many people!
the need to communicate
2012The EyeSpeak was born of the need to overcome the limitations of communication of the father of Ivo Vieira, CEO of LusoVu, diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, in 2013.
Closely monitoring his father, Ivo Vieira quickly realized that the communication devices existing in the market had limitations at various levels. Motivated to provide his father the best alternatives of communication, the CEO of LusoVu decided to use the Augmented Reality technology developed for astronauts and apply it to an eye tracking interface.
In 2012, my father began to lose mobility in one arm and in February 2013 was diagnosed with the disease. The suffering of my father and of the people who were around him was huge. What hurt me the most was when he stopped moving and talking and had to spell the letters..
- Ivo Vieira, CEO of LusoVu
The systems of eye tracking that my father used took so long to install that most of the times I have preferred to use a table, with which he could only write 4 letters per minute. As we had already worked in augmented reality glasses for astronauts, I realized that I could design a computer screen in their lenses and put a micro camera to do the tracking of eye movements. From this moment, the mission of LusoVu in designing the EyeSpeak was drawn.
- Ivo Vieira, CEO of LusoVu
kickstarter campaign
45 prototypesThe next step was to raise financing for the completion and the production of this innovative communication system.
On 16th June 2014 a campaign was launched on Kickstarter, the world's largest web site of collective funding of innovative projects. The Kickstarter campaign has raised $ 128.181, a small part of the amount required for marketing the EyeSpeak. However, LusoVu was the Portuguese company that obtained the highest value in Kickstarter funding to date.
In addition, there have been 17.762 shares on Facebook and nearly 50,000 views on Twitter.
The campaign, which lasted only a month, was supported by 658 backers from around the world and resulted in the delivery of 45 EyeSpeak prototypes. The latest version of EyeSpeak has new features and a more attractive design, allowing the user to communicate more effectively and quickly emphasizing the robustness and user’s comfort.
dollars raised
shares on Facebook
views on Twitter
backers all over the world