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Vision Independence
SIGHTLINE
AI Vision Companion for the Visually Impaired
A robotic companion that navigates, sees, understands, and communicates. Built for Indian roads from the ground up.
Concept · Seeking collaborators
12M
blind Indians — 90% navigate without any assistive device
The problem
White canes detect obstacles at knee height. Guide dogs are expensive, require years of training, and are culturally unfamiliar in India. No existing navigation aid handles India's unpredictable roads — open manholes, uneven footpaths, stray animals, and missing curb cuts.
Our approach
SIGHTLINE is not a navigation app or a smart cane — it is a robotic companion. It walks beside the user, sees the full environment at human height, understands context (a pothole is different from a puddle), and communicates through bone-conduction audio and haptic feedback. Built for Indian roads, not adapted from Western designs.
How it would work
1
360° Environmental Awareness
LIDAR + camera fusion provides complete situational awareness at human height — not cane height.
2
Indian Road Intelligence
Trained on Indian road conditions: open manholes, missing curb cuts, auto-rickshaws, stray animals.
3
Contextual Navigation
Understands destinations, not just directions. 'Take me to the pharmacy' works with local landmark knowledge.
4
Multi-Modal Feedback
Bone-conduction audio for voice guidance. Haptic belt for directional cues. Both hands stay free.
Help us build SIGHTLINE
SIGHTLINE is a concept born from 10 years of fieldwork with children and families. It exists as a research proposal — not yet a product.
We are looking for researchers, engineering teams, sponsors, and institutional partners to move this from idea to reality. If this problem matters to you, we would love to hear from you.