A day with NOA
NOA is your daily mobility companion. NOA stands for Navigation, Obstacles and AI. So let’s walk through a typical day of what NOA can do for you, as a user or mobility trainer. You’ll need the official app, biped app, to access deeper settings.
A busy
morning
![NOA device on a sofa with a hand sliding a battery inside the dedicated slot.](./img/attachment.png)
Start NOA at home
You're heading to a coffee to meet a friend today! Slide a battery in NOA and turn the headphones ON. 20 seconds later, NOA is ready! No need to use the app every time. Just click on the button on the right side and you're good to go!
![A person walking down a street with a NOA device on the shoulders.](./img/slide-2Mob.png)
Obstacle detection
As you walk with NOA, it will automatically detect obstacles around you. Most of the time, the device will be silent. But in case of danger, you'll hear "beep, beep, beep".
![A software screenshot with an image of a tree captured from the NOA device. The branches identified as obstacles by NOA are highlighted in red as a potential hazard.](./img/branch.png)
A surprising obstacle
There seems to something blocking the way as you hear a high pitch "beep" right ahead. It's a low hanging branch. You rotate your shoulders slightly to your left, and there are no sounds anymore. You just found the boundary of the obstacle and you safely avoid the obstacle by taking a step to your left.
![A software screenshot with a car occluding the crosswalk in front of the user, captured from the cameras of NOA.](./img/car_blocking_way.png)
Bad parking
After 5 minutes following the GPS voice, you hear a new sequence of beeps as you walk closer to something that seems to block the sidewalk. You can't find a free way around, so you click on the AI button and a couple of seconds later, you hear 'There is a ccar parked in front, at about 3 meters, that seems to be blocking the way'.
![A large hallway with a group of people in the center of the image and a path, drawn on the floor, guiding the user to a destination.](./img/indoor.png)
You have arrived at work
NOA tells you “In 10 meters, turn right at 2 o’clock, and your destination will be on your right”. As you know the place, you don't need help finding the door, but that's something NOA could do with its AI capabilities.
![A person wearing a NOA device at work, in a corridor and next to a coffee machine.](./img/break.jpg)
NOA Pro on workplace
Your employer signed up for NOA Pro, our workplace accessibility program. This means that your building was mapped indoors, and custom GPS routes were created outdoors to help you move around the campus smoothly.
![A person walking with a NOA user, in the street, likely providing a mobility training session.](./img/slide-des-right.png)
An orientation and mobility session
Meet a mobility trainer over lunch break for a training session with NOA. The team at biped designed a smartphone application that Orientation and Mobility specialists can use to ease training. They can use the app to visualize an obstacle map, replay GPS instructions, read the AI descriptions…
Fancy a break?
Feeling hungry throughout the day? Open our smartohone app, search for restaurants nearby from the GPS interface and follow the instructions that NOA provides. Once you’re in front of the restaurant, press the AI button to get a description of the name of the restaurant, signs on the door or even the menu in front.
![A person facing a restaurant menu outdoors with a NOA device on the shoulders.](./img/menu.jpg)
Discover
the city
![A picture of the NOA device.](./img/attachment.png)
Set GPS destination
After work, you're heading to a new coffee place you heard about! Take the accessible GPS smartphone app, and type your destination. A pedestrian-optimized route will be computed, and your headphones will start streaming turn-by-turn instructions.
![A crosswalk detected by NOA, from the cameras, with a rectangle highlighting the location of the crosswalk in the image.](./img/crosswalk.png)
Cross the street
The GPS tells you to cross the street and turn right. So to identify the location of the crosswalk around you, you click on the button on the side of NOA. There is a shortcut button to identify crosswalks. A short audio description tells you that's it's on your left at about 5 meters.
![A user of NOA, in the metro, with pedestrian detected as an obstacle in front, slight on the right, and a path drawn on the floor indicating that the door of the metro is on the left.](./img/metro.png)
Stop NOA in the metro
We strongly believe that obstacle detection systems are useful a good part of the time, but not all the time! Entering the metro might be overwheling as all distances are very short. In such cases, moving with a cane might be a lot easier. So simply put NOA on pause with a simple click on the right.
Never-ending night
The day doesn’t stop with sunlight, so why should a mobility device do so? NOA is equiped with infrared sensors to detect obstacles and provide navigation instructions at night too.