In an impressive feat of creativity, two college juniors, Arjun Oberoi and Daniel Kim, just took the prize in the prestigious Microsoft Imagine Cup Competition with their revolutionary AI-driven wearable device, Argus.
This vision enhancement tech that’s meant to help the low vision was a grand prize winner ($100,000 prize plus a mentoring session with Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella).
Argus is a two-piece wearable system designed to classify objects, navigate environments, and identify people using a hybridized model of edge compute and cloud AI. With an innovative design to reduce latency and free you from wireless interference, It offers Wi-R technology, which consumes much less power than standard Wi-Fi. This provides all-day battery life to help promote comfort and independence.
The personal motivation for Argus is very relatable to both Oberoi and Kim, who both have grandparents who live with visual impairment. But to see them struggle doing everyday things, it gave them the drive to find a real solution.”
Their approach was to prioritize simplicity and accessibility, and take a hardware solution with haptics, over an app on a mobile device, with which no person who is visually impaired should have to fumble.
The win at the Imagine Cup, a worldwide technology start-up competition for students, came on the heels of their win at the 2024 Red Bull Basement National Final, where Argus impressed that audience and took home first place. Microsoft’s blessing is a good thing for the duo, who are currently working on scaling Argus.
Their immediate objective is to mold the device, and send out a few hundred of them to be used as a beta device, and they hope to even bring out a fully built (either direct to-consumer hardware and as a Durable Medical Device through FDA regulations.
Argus is an inspiring story about how AI can revolutionize to enable people participate in technology. With Microsoft’s support for accessibility and Argus’ successful surge, there’s hope for greater independence and a better quality of life for millions around the world.
