GiveVision’s SightPlus, a wearable, hands-free, vision-enhancement application powering smart glasses to assist visually impaired people.
​
BRUSSELS—Two optical technology companies are among the 15 finalists that have been shortlisted for the AAL Smart Ageing Challenge prize, which is offering €50,000 for the best innovation that uses the Internet of Things to empower older adults to achieve the quality of life they aspire to, socially and independently. The competition is sponsored by Active and Assisted Living Programme, a Brussels-based organization dedicated to supporting research into innovative ICT-enhanced services (information and communication technology) for ageing.

After receiving close to 200 entries from all over Europe, the judges whittled down the entrants to the 15 best, who will now move on to the next stage of the competition. Among them are GiveVision, the developer of SightPlus, a wearable, hands-free, vision-enhancement application powering smart glasses to assist visually impaired people, and Visual Assistant, which makes smart device screens tailored to an individual’s eye condition that enables them to reconnect to community, culture, learning and relaxation.

The finalists will attend an “innovation academy” in Brussels, where they will receive advice about their technology and business mentoring, while they seek to impress the judges further and make it to the grand final, which will be held at the AAL Forum 2016 in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

All the finalists are using new, adapted and repurposed technologies that demonstrate a new or adaptive way of solving a problem or challenge faced by older people. Click here for a list of finalists.