• Blog
  • Archives
  • Bio
  • Awards
  • Speaking
  • Book
  • Contact

Aipoly at Singularity University

Published: Wednesday, 30 September 2015

Aipoly aims to help the blind navigate the world. Our first application enables blind people to take a photo of their surroundings, and have it described to them in a sentence. Aipoly’s initial prototype uses convolutional neural networks to interpret images and relay them to the user in real time, and an API with a human layer for more descriptive semantic responses.  We got into TechCrunch with Aipoly!  My first ever TechCrunch article!  :)  You can read it in full here!  I worked on the project with my Singularity University classmate Alberto Rizzoli from Italy.  Mark Parncutt from Australia helped us create our first prototypes.

Here is the video we made during the first week of our two-week project at Singularity University showing users' response to the app.


I was attending a picnic with 70 blind people and showing them the app, when it became morning in Australia!  So I did a Weekend Breakfast interview with ABC News 24.


After two weeks at Singularity University, our work on Aipoly and our pitch impressed our classmates and the judges so much that we were given the privilege of presenting at the Closing Ceremony as the final speakers.  Here is a video made by Singularity University where we speak about that experience!


And finally, Andrea Bocelli used and gave us feedback on our Aipoly app!

About Me

Marita ChengForbes named me a world's top 50 woman in tech & 30 Under 30. I founded Robogals and Aipoly and was Young Australian of the Year 2012. Currently working on robotics company Aubot. I'm the youngest Member of the Order of Australia (AM) and I give speeches around the world.

I tweet @maritacheng and I'm on Facebook.

Subscribe

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Random Articles

  • Non-profit founder critics

    Why are people so critical when young people start non-profits? Time and time again, I hear people say, "there are enough non-profits out there....

  • Nexus Impact Accelerator Fellow

    I spent the last few days of February in Washington DC attending the Nexus Global Summit as a Nexus Impact Accelerator Fellow. NEXUS is a global...

  • How to expand

    Are you doing the same old things that you know how to do, that you know won’t fail, that you know won’t make you look bad, over and over again?  It...

  • Real Girls Change the World

    Went to Utah and spoke at the Girl Scout National Convention in front of 6000 young women from all over America.  Pretty insane!  The panel was...

  • Wall of Change

    I have a wall in my room where the artwork is sheets of paper blu-tacked next to each other, forming a rectangle.  I call it my "Wall of Change" My...

  • Eating through mosquito nets

    The recurring problem with malaria is that mosquitoes have evolved to be immune to every vaccination ever invented against them.   Humans too are...

  • Do what's hard

    In Robogals, I always looked for the hardest possible thing to do.  And then I did it. Because I knew that if I could achieve that, then I would...

  • Short Black | Sandra Sully podcast

    The lovely Sandra Sully invited me to appear on her podcast, Short Black, after we spoke at Vogue Codes together in 2018.  Check out our conversation here: ...

  • Success is in the doing

    Even if I know my chances of success are slim because I've been disorganised, have missed deadlines, have generally not followed my own rules for...

  • The Year of a Young Australian of the Year

    In 2008, I founded Robogals as a response to there being hardly any other women in my engineering classes. Our organisation is run by university...

Enter your email address to receive my latest blog posts: 

 

Scroll to Top