Eneko Calvo has a degree in IT Management and Information Systems from the UPV/EHU. Together with Uxue Mancisidor and Apurva San Juan, he directs LUP, which facilitates reading for people with visual difficulties, through a pocket magnifier or an application. In this interview, Eneko presents her company, already awarded, and tells us, among other things, the benefits of using LUP.
What is Lup and how does it work?
Whether you know it or not, reading is part of most of the activities we do in our daily lives. Therefore, people with reading problems encounter many obstacles in their lives and many times they can lose their autonomy. And this is the barrier we are breaking with LUP, that of reading. We use computer vision and the artificial intelligence of LUP for accessibility.
We develop solutions that convert text into voice, so that reading does not become an obstacle every day. We make a special effort in 3 areas:
- In the classroom.
- In old age.
- And in people who suffer LOSS OF VISION.
It is already a reality that, in the classroom, more than 5 million young people, in Spain alone, fail in their studies due to reading difficulties caused by dyslexia or a visual pathology. We would talk about 7 out of every 10 children who fail in their studies because they are not able to read and understand the texts. Thanks to LUP’s reading support and text-to-voice conversion, we are solving the reading barrier so that these young students can focus on understanding and learning. We could be talking about a 65% reduction in school failure.
On the other hand, today the population pyramid is aging, which means that around 50% of the population is over 55 years old. Reading difficulties related to age are inevitable and therefore, providing solutions that facilitate reading promotes and favors active aging, but above all, improves the quality of life of these people. From LUP we make those everyday actions, like reading a newspaper, an invoice, a brochure, a bank card… return to form part of the routine of our users. We are your support so that you can continue doing what you want to do.
If we talk about visual disabilities, such as low vision, presbyopia, hypermetropia, astigmatism, AMD, cataracts, etc., all are pathologies that make reading difficult, but above all the number of people with visual disabilities is close to 300 million, more than 50% of the world population. Our mission at LUP is to provide these people with an intelligent reader that will be their daily companion, generating confidence and security in daily activities where reading is very important.
What solutions do you propose?
Here are our solutions:
On the one hand, the first POCKET MAGNIFIER that integrates artificial intelligence and visual computing to make reading easier than ever. The first independent eye magnifier that will read text and translate it to voice almost instantly. And on the other hand, our mobile application, LUP APP, a revolutionary application that puts technology at the service of accessibility. An ideal application to recover autonomy in reading, but also useful to complete the treatment of a visual pathology.
Going deeper, first, under the magnifying glass, we are facing a unique device in the world, protected and patented. The smart pocket magnifier is a device designed to be carried in the pocket, a portable product, easy to use and independent of internet connection.
Our magnifying glass gives you that confidence to read wherever you are and in any situation, even in the dark. The smart pocket magnifier integrates state-of-the-art electronics and hardware, which allows us to improve and incorporate new features based on the user’s needs. We provide a scalable device that can be updated with time. It’s very easy to use. Exactly, as if we took a photograph with any mobile phone. That is to say, it is not necessary to move in the text, but it is enough to realize a single capture. Once this is done, the device reads and saves the text, no longer as an image, but as an audio that we can hear with or without headphones.
Moving on to the mobile application, we would be facing a digital assisted reading solution that will read for you when reading is a barrier. We are the first application for private but also professional use, which can be integrated in clinics, residences, day centers, schools, etc., with the objective of facilitating reading and making any type of text accessible.
With the APP LUP the user will be able to scan, save and share his readings, but with a slight modification, thanks to our system of character recognition and voice synthesis, he will be able to listen. Our application includes more than 30 languages.
We have always believed in LUP so the use of visual rest was a critical point. It favors the use, favors and improves the visual rest of the people. This is why the APP LUP is the first application, with reading support, that integrates a system of optical filters, adaptable to each pathology, that provides visual support.
How did the idea come to you?
We were still at university and they presented us with a technology, computer vision, and we saw that it was a tool that could have a great impact on society. We wanted to incorporate this technology into people’s daily lives and, after a long study, we realized that it could make life easier and create autonomy for people who have some type of reading difficulty, almost 50% of the population in Spain.
What did you feel when you received one of the awards from the Mapfre Foundation for Social Innovation among 350 nominations from all over the world, specifically the Social Economy Award?
For LUP, this type of recognition is fuel and energy to move forward. This award confirms the social impact that we are creating and will continue to create through our solutions.
It has been a pleasure to enjoy the experiences and activities that we have carried out together with the community of social entrepreneurs from all over the world in Madrid.
Do you have any data on the difficulty of viewing accurately in Spain?
Directly, in Spain there are 1.2 million people with low vision, and 4.6 million people who suffer from dyslexia. According to SEEBV, an increase of 10% is expected.
If we talk about other conditions that make reading difficult, such as cataracts, myopia, hypermetropia, astigmatism, presbyopia… we would be talking about 54.3% of the population (approximately 25 million people).
What future projects do you have with Lupe?
If we talk about future investments, we have it very clear. Today we invest and intend to invest time in the research and development of new solutions, but also in the improvement and robustness of the current ones. On the other hand, we want to bring LUP to the majority of clinics, residences, schools, kindergartens… in short, places where reading is an obstacle in the day to day. Finally, the internationalization, we want to adapt our solutions and make them known all over the world.
What is the best and worst of entrepreneurship?
The best are the contacts, friends, experiences, knowledge and skills you acquire. The worst part are the sacrifices you have to make to achieve your objective. It is not an easy path, but with passion and desire you will reach infinity.
How would you encourage people to use Lup?
If reading difficulties are affecting your independence in daily activities, we are here to help you. With Lup we convert text to voice so that reading is easier than ever. Recover the independence to go shopping, read a newspaper, an invoice…whatever you want.
www.lup.es
