Wipro GlaM8 powered by Vishwas: Visually Worldly Assistance

GlaM8(Vishwas) Eyes for people with Visual Disability - is an innovative AI platform for visually impaired persons to connect with beauty/fashion industry and community based on Crowdsourcing model

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Inspiration

Wipro GlaM8 powered by Vishwas: Visually Worldly Assistance It started with the motto of creating Eyes for people with Visual Disability. As 5G and Edge Computing technologies are enriching the life experience of people through connectivity, we are leveraging on this to enhance the quality of lives of people with blind and visually impaired. Thought process of the product has been built on the lines “Nothing about us without us” inspired by UN’s moto”, while this is a tech for social good,

We believe there is a lot of potential for the larger community to participate in a crowdsourcing model which is going to be Eyes for people with Visual Disability. Vishwas helped us to understand the importance of using universal design principles, accessibility for people with physical impairment and it is possible to assist/serve visually impaired person using a “Eyes-as-a-service (EAAS)” concept. There are numerous use cases which Vishwas is able to solve like help with the medicines, Banking transactions, Food/grocery delivery, filing taxes, object search etc. We feel beauty although an aspirational chore but still a necessity in the lives of a visually impaired person in their day-to-day life.

What it does

An independent Visually Impaired person can seek remote real time assistance for a range of day-to-day scenarios using Vishwas AI which will facilitate secure remote interaction, live connectivity, and fulfill other administration aspects. It is an intuitive solution for a visual impaired person (roadmap is to extend this platform to people with other impairments) that can be easily implemented, pragmatic, practical, affordable, scalable and applicable to any part of the world. Vishwas solution would be built on universal design principles and open standards, Easy to use app with all the accessibility features powered by backend platform with a 24/7 call center, a crowdsourcing portal where volunteers from various organizations and verified individuals participate in a gig model. It will also have an AI based match, which would assist in assigning volunteers based on proximity, language, gender and skills etc. GlaM8 will encompass will have features like GlaM8 AI Assistance, Makeup buddy, Ask my gang, in store navigation and leverage Vishwas strong social community and influencers.

How we built it

Vishwas was conceptualized and developed collaboratively by Wipro CTO office and our global disability team who understands the challenges and work extensively with people with visual disability and are helping us to build this self-sustainable tech platform. As per the CTO innovation roadmap we wanted this solution to include emerging technologies like 5G-Edge Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision, AR and Crowdsourcing. Journey of this solution started in May 2020 when graduates from 5G Academy Wipro submitted solution concept to 5G Hackathon organized by Indian Mobile Congress, DoT (GoI) and TCOE (GoI) which made it to top 100 solutions across country. It has also been part of ETSI MEC hackathon, Aegis Graham Bell Awards, IEEE Hackathon. This has been possible through contribution and expertise of multiple teams across Wipro involving Technovation Center 5G Lab, Communications vertical, 5G and Edge Computing Practice, Wipro Holmes Automation and AI team, TopCoder crowdsourcing platform, technologist from DMTS (Wipro’s elite community of Distinguished Member of Technical Staff) etc.

Challenges we ran into

Vishwas is currently in pilot stage completely use case driven and feedback provided by Internal Wipro Employees (about 100 Visually Impaired employees). It essentially empowers them by leveraging on the volunteer’s eyesight for a moment. The platform opens up to a trusted community of people which is more powerful and reliable as it expands the support system beyond families or friends circle like a digital friend. It also has potential integration with some of the other accessibility devices like smart stick, braille keyboard etc. Besides the operational risks, the solution probably will encounter certain risks such as privacy issues both from the requestor and the volunteer perspective. Both the parties might cross their boundries and professional etiquites and get into personal conversation. The requestor has additional risks of projecting the personal stuff, residence / place where they live, or at times some confidential data of their organisations and not to forget that their disability would also be exposed. This may not go well from GDPR or any such privacy laws. Additionally, the requestor revealing their personal information can lead to developing certain incorrect impressions about the person or the community of visual disability folks. This could probably add to certain stereotypes about visual disability which might indirectly affect the dignity of person/community.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

“You must get engaged with people who are far less privileged than you. I think you must devote your time if not your resources... Because it is very, very important from the point of view of the development of our country” – Azim Premji (Founder Chairman Wipro Technologies Ltd.)

  • Among the top 100 solutions in 5G hackathon organized by Indian Mobile Congress and DoT (Department of Telecommunication, Govt of India)
  • Among the top 3 Solutions in ETSI MEC Hackathon
  • Selected for solution showcase at Aegis Graham Bell Awards and IEEE Hackathon

What we learned

While this is a tech for social good, we believe it should self-sustainable. We believe there is a lot of potential for the larger community to participate in a crowdsourcing model which is going to be Eyes for people with Visual Disability. We understood the meaning of using universal design principles and open standards in an app and accessibility for people with physical impairment. We believe it should be self-sustainable driven by ecosystem play. • Crowdsourcing - Validated Individual Gig Participants • Vishwas portal - Integration with other tech, powered by Wipro HOLMES™ • Corporates though CSRs, resources, volunteers pool • Telecom Operators, NEPs, OEMs – Digital Inclusion Initiatives • Government support with subsidies, grants and schemes • NGOs/Social institutions/Vision Foundations/Trust/ Vision foundations for management • Corporate Diversity and Inclusion function • Further can be further integrated with other platforms for e.g. Job portals, Govt. schemes, Ed-Tech platforms, products for visually disabled, like a special marketplace for all their needs • The proposed solution has a power of attracting and empowering people with visual impairment across the globe which is 39 million people (Total Blindness– https://www.lasereyesurgeryhub.co.uk/data/visual-impairment-blindness-data-statistics/ )

What's next for Wipro Vishwas

  • Wipro has a strong community of Visual Impaired persons, we plan to pilot our solution to find out right product market fit and implement feedback in real time. Since it is an evolving solution we would take help from Premji Foundation to take the solution to other entities
  • If such crowdsourcing model is successful, we would like to horizontal expand in the areas of other impairments.

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