SUITCEYES

Deafblindness is a severe condition that can be congenital or acquired through illness, accident and/or old age. There are currently an estimated 2.5 million individuals in Europe with deafblindness. Due to extended life expectancy, and the aging population, this number is expected to rise considerably by the 2030s. Currently there are few ICT tools specifically developed for this group.

The overall objective of SUITCEYES is to improve the level of independence and participation of people with deafblindness and to enhance their communication, perception of the environment, knowledge acquisition, and conduct of daily routines. SUITCEYES aims at combining and developing cutting-edge technologies and ICT tools to provide a smart, adaptable, haptic interface, which is based on machine learning, sensor technologies, image and signal processing, psychophysics, and affective computing. The result will (i) extend the localisation and environmental perception of the user and (ii) improve the user’s modes of communication via a haptic interface. Towards this end, SUITCEYES will develop and deliver a prototype of a haptic, intelligent, personalised, interface (HIPI) that is intended to be further developed and commercialised in due course, affording improved communication possibilities for its users.

The project outcome is not limited to a technological solution, it also includes user and policy studies that in turn will improve our understanding of the needs of people with deafblindness and which will facilitate informed policies and decision making.

Consortium

University of Boras, Sweden
Centre for Research and Technology, Hellas, Greece
Offenburg University, Germany
University of Leeds, Great Britain
Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
Les Doigts Qui Revent, France
Harpo Sp. z o.o., Poland