Young innovator from the Eastern Cape, Elihle Stali, has set the bar high for breakthrough technology aimed at assisting the visually impaired with a pair of AI-assisted smart glasses inspired by his late grandmother.

The 23-year-old computer science student from Nelson Mandela University has created a lightweight pair of glasses, similar in appearance to Meta’s AI glasses, that can translate whatever they are pointed at into audio, telling the user what is in front of them. The device works in several South African languages, giving the technology a unique local flavor. A BackaBuddy fund has been opened for the project and is currently sitting at R159,895.

“Growing up in Zwelitsha, I heard these words from my grandmother every morning. As her full-time child navigator, I made an 11-year-old vow to find a solution that would give her and millions of visually impaired South Africans their ultimate dignity and independence back.

Today, that promise is Spectacles4TheBlind SA. Partnering with A Nation of Light, we have engineered AI-powered smart glasses that guide the blind using a built-in assistant speaking directly in English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa, isiZulu, and Sesotho,” wrote Stali on the BackaBuddy campaign page.

The mission of this innovation has achieved elite validation, as it has been shortlisted into the top 15 global startups to compete and exhibit at the prestigious LEAP Startup East competition in Hong Kong, China, this July.

Stali’s grandmother was blind, and she inspired the launch of his startup company, Spectacles for the Blind SA. This innovation is proof that the South African technology industry does not just start in big cities, but also in small towns like Zwelitsha in the Eastern Cape.