Computer Vision News - February 2017

We discovered a great app, probably the world’s first product of its kind. It is based on hands free control for smartphones and tablets, targeting an audience of people with special needs: people with motor disabilities who cannot use their hands . It uses image processing and computer vision to track head movement and offer control through that. We asked to speak with Oded Ben Dov , co-founder and CEO of Sesame Enable , who was kind enough to tell us everything about the Sesame phone. Read the very moving story about how all this started, in Ben Dov’s own words: “ I studied at Technion in Israel. My focus was on computer vision and artificial intelligence. Following graduation, I opened up a software house for developing iOS applications with computer vision. We did some apps for clients and we created some games. I got to present on Israeli TV one of the games we had developed and which was controlled using hand gestures. I got a phone call the very next day. The guy said: “I cannot use my hands or legs. Could you make me a smartphone I could use? ” That was Giora , who is today the co-founder at Sesame Enable. Giora saw the game. He saw gesture technology in the game and connected the dots. He realized the potential that technology has for people in his condition. It was just the r ight phone cal l . I loved i t for two reasons. I have always been a positive person. Also, it was a great use for technology and the skills that I had. Here, we had a business school case 101. We had a problem that needed a 4 Computer Vision News Application The Sesame Phone Application “I cannot use my hands or legs. Could you make me a smartphone I could use?”