EMPOWER 2023, IIT Madras

The EMPOWER conference is an annual technical event, organized with the objective of bringing together all stakeholders in the assistive technology sector, which includes researchers, user organizations, industries as well as policy makers. Three teams from ProDex were selected as finalists for Empower 2023 held at IIT Madras Research Park out of 8 teams selected nation-wide.

The team working on the Road Safety Assistive Belt for the hearing impaired was selected as the winner of the competition.

The team developed a wearable device in the form of a belt which alerts the user of horns and their directions with the help of vibrations. They developed an algorithm attaining over 90% precision for detecting horn sounds amid street noise. The project was praised for its accuracy and simplicity by various other institutions.