Low vision needs spoken understanding — not another screen.

Side project · Assistive · Mentra Live · Swift · 2026

Open

Full project

Product intent, what ships today, what’s in flight, and the trust contracts that govern spoken output on Mentra Live hardware.

TIERSide project
DEVICEMentra Live
FOCUSLow-vision assist · Audio-first
STATUSv0.1 on TestFlight · active build

Sight Assist gives blind and low-vision people fast, private, spoken understanding of what is in front of them — labels, scenes, hazards, people they enroll, and places they return to. Mentra Live provides the forward camera and speaker; iPhone or Mac runs on-device Apple Vision and speaks results through the glasses or Bluetooth audio.

The product is a calm, trustworthy narrator: speaks only when useful, leads with safety, hedges identity, and never blocks speech to file away memory. No Mentra cloud, app store, or account is required for core value.

This is an assistive companion built for real hardware on TestFlight — not ambient AR and not a platform demo. Sighted helpers use the visual UI for setup and History review; every outcome is designed to be heard first.

Outcomes.

Intent

Hands-free reading and orientation for blind and low-vision Mentra Live users — audio-first, privacy-default, honest about uncertainty.

Shipped

Label read, scene describe, known people, area memory, walk mode v1 — TestFlight on Mentra Live.

Constraint

Not a cane replacement. Safety-first speech. Memory after the answer, never before.

In flight

Queryable space maps, walk mode v2, continuous label scanning, helper workflows.