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Louie Voice | The Creative Solution To A Sight Loss Problem

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Cane EnAbled | Louie Voice

Editor’s Note:

Like many people born with ‘normal’ sight only to lose it later in life, there’s a period of adjustment. Unfortunately, there isn’t a roadmap to follow when a person begins losing their eyesight and we all go through it differently however it’s helpful to learn from other’s experiences. Pramit Bhargava, the man you are about to meet today, developed Louie Voice, a creative solution, to make living with sight loss a bit easier for those affected by it. Here in his own words is Pramit’s story. Enjoy! ~Steph

Contents

Beyond Sight Magazine Cover featuring Pramit Bhargava
Beyond Sight Magazine Cover

Introduction To Pramit

I’m Pramit, a visually impaired man, and here’s a little story of how I decided to take matters into my own hands and embark on an ambitious journey to solve my own problem.

The Lost Phase

As a visually impaired man, there was a period where my vision was dropping sharply and this was the phase when I was completely ‘lost’. This low-point was completely unexpected especially for someone who had graduated from India’s prestigious engineering and management institutions and worked for global companies such as Unilever, Motorola, and Quest Diagnostics. I was becoming so dependent on people because of the lack of technology.

Even though I’m a good user of technology, I realized that the only thing available for the visually impaired was a basic screen reader that was fairly basic, and was difficult to use. Even for simple things like staying connected on WhatsApp, moving around on my own with Uber, entertainment needs, managing my contacts & making phone calls, I had to depend on somebody for help. 

The Eureka Moment

Louie Voice Contol App on the homescreen of a cell phone
Cell Phone

Then a life-changing moment came. A friend was helping me book Uber. He kept asking questions and I was giving him the ride selections and voila the Uber was booked. This got me thinking what if I could build an app with the most natural form of communication – our voice commands to do everything within a supported App and so Louie was born. Just think of Louie as a virtual friend sitting right on the top of your phone screen – You give voice commands and it executes it. Louie, in a way, is all about solving my own problems, and with the hope that it will work for other people as well.

The Result

I developed an App that will allow a user to control their favorite Apps and phone features with just voice commands. 

Meditation and following a spiritual path helped immensely during this phase. And when I started thinking about what I could do under the present circumstances, answers started emerging and the dots started to connect.

Louie Voice Control

Louie is designed to keep the needs of the visually impaired in mind. As I said earlier, Louie is an accessibility App and can be equally beneficial for motor-disabled, elderly, people with limited manual dexterity, and all hands-free & voice lovers.

See Louie in Action:

Louie Voice Control

Louie currently supports Uber, WhatsApp, YouTube, Contacts and Phone Calls. More Apps like Facebook, FB Messenger, Food Ordering, Google Search, Web Navigation, eCommerce, Receiving/Disconnecting Calls and other Phone Settings etc. are under development.

None of the leading Voice Assistants can do what Louie can. Louie is the only App that does a two-way continuous interaction with a user while letting the user voice control each and every feature of an App.

Louis Braille, the inventor of braille,
is the inspiration behind
the name “Louie”.

The Differentiator

You must be wondering how is Louie Voice Control different from Voice Assistants. Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri just cannot do what Louie can. They won’t do everything within an App and just do 2 or 3 superficial things within an App. They also have a nasty habit of going silent each and every time. As you just saw Louie does a continuous two-way interaction that every human needs. 

There is one ingredient that Louie flourishes on which is user feedback. Louie has been developing fast only because of feedback from few users across the world. They have told us about their pain points and what new features and Apps they would like to voice control.

My aim is to spread the word about Louie so that more and more visually impaired friends use the app and hopefully it will work for them as well. Today, Louie has users from nearly 70 countries. I’m committed to making Louie work for all of us and I need VI Community’s support in that. 

Louie is currently available for Android and we’ll be doing a Technical Feasibility for the iOS during the second half of this year.

Contacting Pramit

Social Media Handles:

Image Descriptions:

  • The header image is a waist shot photo of Pramit sitting at a table holding up a cell phone with the Louie Voice logo on the home screen. The logo is a bold white ‘donut’ hole circle on a dark navy background. Under the circle is “Your Friend For Life.”
  • Beyond Sight Magazine Cover has the same image as in the header. Text reads: Pramit Bhargava | Louie Voice | The Creative Solution To A Sight Loss Problem | Cane Enabled | Celebrating broad perspectives of those in the field of blindness/low vision.
  • Cell phone with the Louie Voice logo on the home screen.
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