**Empowering Vision-Impaired Individuals: Transforming Lives with Cutting-Edge Technology** 43 million people globally, including 340,000 in the UK, live with blindness. 2 million people in the UK suffer from moderate-to-severe visual impairment (VI), affecting individuals' ability to navigate independently and safely and significantly impacting wellbeing: * **Higher Risk of Injury:** Visually impaired individuals (VIIs) face double the risk of falls and injuries. * **Mental Health Challenges:** VIIs are twice as likely to experience depression. * **Social Isolation & Loneliness**: 63% of VIIs suffer from social isolation and loneliness. * **Employment & Education:** VIIs face barriers to work and education, with only a quarter of VIIs in employment. **WeWalk: Leading the Way in Assistive Technology** WeWalk, in collaboration with Imperial College London and the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), is at the forefront of creating assistive technology for VIIs. WeWalk's Smart Cane (a traditional white cane incorporating sensors and linked to a smartphone app) has already positively impacted over 5,500 VIIs, by helping with navigation and above-ground obstacle detection. It was recognized as TIME's "Best Invention", Amazon's Startup of the Year 2021, and the King's Award for Innovation. **A Vision for the Future: Introducing SAW-Navigation-System** But WeWalk's mission goes further. WeWalk has designed a new product: the Situationally Aware Wearable Navigation System (SAW-Navigation-System). This cutting-edge wearable incorporates advanced technologies such as computer vision and AI, providing real-time integrated object detection, navigation, and feedback. SAW-Navigation-System promises a leap in situational awareness for VIIs, making the product attractive to a broader spectrum of VII users (both moderate and severe) including the elderly (of whom 1-in-5 experience sight loss after 75), transforming their ability to confidently navigate complex environments. **Pathway To Mass Adoption: Gold-Standard Clinical Trials** This research project will produce 20-30 prototype units of the SAW-Navigation-System to conduct a clinical trial. It will assess impacts on users (by testing for increases in wellbeing, mobility and independence, and reduction in risk of falling) and provide the NHS with evidence of these benefits. This will open the potential of NHS and insurers offering the SAW-Navigation-System, paving the way for WeWalk's international expansion opportunities. **Why Public Investment Matters** Innovate UK's support will help WeWalk bring to market technology to improve the lives of the elderly and VIIs. It will position the UK as a global leader in VI innovation, leveraging top technology talent, a leading university, and the charity sector, representing a beacon of hope for millions.

There are over 2 million older people with sight loss in the UK(AgeUK\_2015); globally, it's estimated to be 253 million(Ackland\_et\_al\_2017). As the population ages, this figure will increase as sight loss disproportionally impacts older people. People with sight loss benefit from the white cane to get around, often in conjunction with smartphone navigation apps. These can include accessibility features such as screen readers, colour filters, and dexterity tools. However, a long cane can only detect obstacles below knee-height and within approximately 1m of the user. Moreover, most smartphone interfaces are not developed with sufficient compatibility for these accessibility features, limiting their usefulness. This makes it particularly challenging for visually impaired individuals(VIIs) to navigate safely in busy urban areas, especially where cars, bicycles, and pedestrians are found in close proximity. To address this challenge, WeWALK have developed a revolutionary "smart" device that screws onto a user's existing cane, upgrading a tool relied on by over 50 million people. Our cane detects obstacles at knee-to-head height and uniquely connects to a user's smartphone to provide audio-based navigation via integration with Google Maps, Moovit, and Microsoft services. Efforts to enhance WeWALK's indoor positioning by the project partners have uncovered that seamless wayfinding in all environments, including outdoors, is possible with situational awareness. This project will address this challenge, including the last-mile problem where individuals fail to locate their final destination or transport route, creating a fully autonomous, comprehensive, safety-critical, and accessible navigation system for older VIIs. Recent assistive smartphone apps have included computer vision for object recognition in addition to environmental mapping and localisation through the concept of simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM). Their underlying principle can be very useful in solving WeWALK's navigation constraints; however, to date, they have not demonstrated adequate system performance(accuracy/reliability/usability) for use in a safety-critical application such as enabling a VII to navigate, avoiding hazards, around an urban environment. We will address the technical/safety challenges that have prevented widespread uptake of computer vision-aided navigation including environmental mapping and overall situational awareness for older and VIIs. We will build on the existing WeWALK architecture with new hardware and software, incorporating spatial sensing and advanced data analytics, providing safety-critical functionality and usability frameworks. This project has the potential to play a vital role in ensuring that the rising numbers of visually impaired people have full access to the urban spaces where we live, work, and play.