John gets the job done with the help of wearable technology

If you visit our Lismore, New South Wales, office, it’s likely you’ll be greeted by John Zambelli at reception.

A valued member of our Aruma team, John has a vision impairment and struggles to see fine details. Facial expressions, body language and distant objects are challenging.

Technological innovation, such as text-to-speech software, has proven a great support to John and, recently, a new piece of technology is seeing John’s independence skyrocket, both at work and beyond.

Through his NDIS plan, John received the OrCam MyEye 2. It’s a small, wearable device, about the size of a finger, which connects to any pair of glasses.

“When I tap on the touch bar, use my voice or point with my finger, the OrCam takes a photo and, within a second, reads out any text, close-up or far away,” said John.

The clever device can also detect and learn faces, read barcodes and read bank notes, and describe the colour of an item.

“At home, the OrCam will assist me to quickly read cooking instructions and help me identify whether I have picked up black or navy clothes. Outside of home, the OrCam vastly improves my independence by helping me to read café menus and street signs and identify faces.”

Not only is the OrCam MyEye 2 improving John’s life, he knows it’s adding value to Aruma too!

“By identifying people, the OrCam will improve the customer experience I provide. And, by reading paper documents quickly, it allows me to make better use of my time and keep up with the pace of discussion in meetings.”

“The OrCam is an amazing piece of equipment that is changing my world, both at work and beyond.”