Why these engineering students turned startup founders are now working on a stargazing product for the blind

They’ve developed a digital tape measure, secured seed funding, and taken home the national James Dyson award, but the founders of OSeyeris are aiming even higher, creating a stargazing app for the visually impaired.
Founded by University of Queensland engineering students Jake Dean and Yuma Antoine Decaux, who lost his sight in 2009, OSeyeris was developed through the university’s iLab Germinate accelerator.
The startup’s first product, the Macaron, was born when Decaux was renovating his home.
When it came to taking measurements, “I couldn’t find a way to do it independently”, he tells StartupSmart.
The Macaron is a bluetooth-enabled, smart tape measure, combining robotics with sleek design and user experience, and allowing people with vision impairments to measure accurately.
However, it’s also arguably more efficient than using a traditional tape measure, and has proven useful to sighted people as well, the founders say.
The pair developed the Macaron through the iLab accelerator, and in September this year, OSeyeris was named national winner of the James Dyson award for the product.
Dean calls the win a “big validation”. Read more

Stephanie Palmer-Derrien - SmartCompany - 13 December 2018