How would you design a Camera for Blind People?

Interviewer: How would you design a Camera for Blind People?

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 This is a product design question in which we have explored both hardware and software solution

I think in this age of advanced technology, blind people deserve much more. There are so many beautiful landscapes and sceneries in the world which are totally inaccessible to blind people. It would be great if we would be able to provide that kind of experience to them.

Clarification questions :

Shailesh: When we are building a camera, are we thinking of any digital app or a physical camera? A physical camera can give a person feel a real photography experience.
Interviewer: It is totally up to you; you can decide as you go.

Shailesh: What is our product goal? Is it only photography or it can have other utilities that may help blind people in day to day tasks like a camera for reading the text, currency identification etc.?

Interviewer: I am keeping it open-ended.

Shailesh: I am assuming that they can listen, feel the touch etc.
Alright, so we are building a camera for blind people which will empower them to capture moments and feel them.

Customer Segment :

We can have the following different Customer segment

1. Partially blind people, people who can still make sense out of colour and shapes.
2. Completely blind people
3. Caretakers

I would like to focus on completely blind people because if are able to solve their problems, then the problems of the majority of people will be solved.

Customer Pain Points :

1. If they have gone on some trip, then they aren’t able to capture the moments because they are not able to see, if they even try to capture, then they don’t even know if the landscape/people are in the right frame to click.
2. If someone else has clicked the picture, they can’t feel the picture missing out on the belongingness of the community.
3. If they want to listen to environmental commentary or want to be aware of their surroundings, not able to do.
4. They can’t store the captured moments, share them with their friends, families or on social media also, they can’t relive them in future.

I will prioritise the customer pain points 1 and 2 in that order.

Solution/Features :

1. We can have a physical smart camera which has braille buttons on the top of it from which blind people can sense how to click the photo. The camera should be smart enough to tell them if the thing is out of frame. We can use the voice-over feature for that.
2. All the photos that the person has clicked are stored on the SD card; there is another base device in which if he inserts the SD card, all the pictures appear in the braille format, so now he can feel the captured moments.
3. Both the camera and the base device should have long battery life. It should have both the ability to charge and a cellular battery.
4. I wouldn’t be surprised in future if blind people have personalised drones cameras capturing moments and directly connected to the base unit on which blind people can see real-time imagery

Interviewer: So you have chosen a hardware product.

Shailesh: Yes, it may sound odd, but by braille pictures, now blind people can feel the outline of the mountain ranges. By this, we can empower them to feel close to the real photography experience.

Interviewer: Alright, can you also take me through the digital/software product for the same?

Shailesh: Sure. I am assuming it to be a digital mobile application. There is a tradeoff now we are taking them away from real photography experience, but a digital solution would be a much more scalable, and now sharing the pictures with friends and family will become much easier.

Solution/Features :

1. We can have an app with a smart camera to describe the background. Recognise friends and describe people around you, including their emotions. For example, if a person is clicking the photo of his friend, it should tell if the friend is in the frame or not. It should also be able to tell how far the person is standing/sitting/smiling/gender etc.
2. Captured photos should be saved in the gallery, in which a blind person can select the photo to share with friends and families or view it in the future.
3. The camera should be able to read/speak text in front of it, scan the document, read the currency notes while paying bills by cash etc.

For the MVP, we can try the first feature, recognise friends and describe people around you, including their emotions, along with sharing it with friends and family members. Then we can extend it into scanning documents, reading currency notes, scanning bar codes etc.

Success metrics :

1. No. of app downloads
2. No. of moments captured
3. No. of voice hours by the camera
4. No. of app shares

To summarise, it is an application that converts the visual world into an audible experience and empowers blind people to achieve more in their lives.