DotLumen founder Cornel Amariei describes his product as a “self-guided” system that allows blind and visually impaired people to get around. In essence, it is the electronic equivalent of a guide dog that helps users avoid obstacles while walking. The Romanian company came to CES 2025 in Las Vegas with prototypes of its headset, which it hopes will make life much easier for blind people.
The headset looks like a large piece of virtual reality equipment, with the front unit sitting on your forehead directly above your eyes. On the back is a massive power and data processing unit that keeps the weight of the bulky device balanced while walking. At the front are six computer vision cameras-three near-field and three far-field-amazingly designed by Amariei, who says he was inspired by Tesla’s system.
The main priority here is collision avoidance, which prevents collisions with other pedestrians or street obstacles. The front of the headset has a series of small arms that come into contact with your forehead, each connected to a vibrating motor. When the vibrations are in the center of your forehead, you can move forward safely, but when the vibrations shift to either side, you should turn to refocus.
There is also a voice guide that will let you know when the view in front of you becomes crowded. Amariei told me that the headset lasts about 2.5 hours on battery power, which is more than enough for an average walk. But if you need an extra charge, you can plug in a USB-C battery and carry it with you.
Amariei said that DotLumen will start selling its headset in Europe in the near future, and the price is expected to be below 10,000 euros. As cool as that sounds, he added that the price of training a guide dog is much higher. In the United States, according to the Guide Dog Foundation, it costs $50,000 to breed, raise, train, and place a guide dog.
