Araveil — Project Story
The moment that started everything
My grandmother came home from church one Sunday and told me she had been robbed at a bus stop. She hadn't seen it coming. She couldn't. She had recently lost most of her vision and was still learning to navigate a world that suddenly felt dangerous and unfamiliar. She wasn't helpless — she was brave enough to still go out alone. But that day, her vulnerability cost her.
That conversation stayed with me. I couldn't stop thinking about how many people like her exist — newly vision-impaired adults who haven't had decades to adapt, who are still learning, still figuring out how to be independent again, and who deserve to feel safe doing it.
From personal to purposeful
I brought the idea to one of my closest friends and we came to Jewel City Hacks 4.0 with one question: what if someone like my grandmother could feel what was around her — not just what was in front of her?
We started brainstorming everything. Smart canes. AI glasses. Sensor-equipped belts. We talked to mentors. We researched. We discovered that existing solutions cost thousands of dollars, carry visible stigma, and are designed for people who have already adapted — not for people in transition.
That's the gap we built for.
What we built
Araveil is a two-device spatial awareness ecosystem for people newly navigating vision loss.
The Haptic Belt is worn under clothing and uses ultrasonic sensors — the same proximity technology Tesla uses in parking assist — to vibrate when objects approach from the left or right. Stronger vibration means closer. The direction of the buzz tells you which side. No training required. No phone needed. Nobody knows you're wearing it.
The AI Glasses pair a smartphone mounted on a headband with Claude AI to describe what's ahead in real time — people, signs, crosswalk signals, obstacles — spoken calmly and only when it matters.
Together, the belt and glasses give newly vision-impaired people what my grandmother didn't have that Sunday: awareness of what's around them before something happens.
Who we built it for
Not all blind people — specifically the 33 million working-age Americans with vision loss who haven't had decades to adapt. People whose blindness came suddenly from diabetes, glaucoma, or injury. People like my grandmother, who are brave enough to keep going out into the world but deserve better tools to do it safely.
Araveil isn't a medical device. It's a consumer spatial awareness tool — worn discreetly, priced accessibly, and built open-source so any school, makerspace, or nonprofit can replicate it.
We built this in one day. But the reason we built it has been with us much longer than that.
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