The DotLumen haptic headset can help blind people navigate

DotLumen founder, Cornel Amariye, describes his product as a “self-driving” system to enable blind and visually impaired people to get around. It’s essentially the electronic equivalent of a guide dog, helping users avoid obstacles when getting around. Romanian company It arrived at CES 2025 in Las Vegas Armed with prototypes of headphones that she hopes will make the lives of blind people much easier.

The headset looks like a chunky piece of VR gear, with the front unit sitting on your forehead just above your eyes. There’s a large power and handling package at the back that keeps the weight of the massive device balanced while touring. Up front, there are six computer vision cameras — three near-field and three far-pointed — which Amarii says were inspired by Tesla’s setup.

Collision avoidance is the main priority here, preventing you from colliding with other pedestrians or street obstructions. In front of the headset are a series of small arms that touch your forehead, each one of which is attached to a vibrating motor. When the vibrations are in the middle of your forehead, it is safe for you to move forward, but when the vibrations move to either side, you must turn around to refocus.

There’s also an audio guide, and it will let you know when the view ahead becomes crowded. Amariye told me that the headphone’s battery life is about 2.5 hours, which is more than enough for an average walk. But if you need some extra power, you can plug in a USB-C battery pack and carry it with you as well.

Testing the headphones in the less-than-ideal CES environment was a great way to see how serious the company is. After all, the ceilings are low, the aisles are narrow, and there are always hundreds of people walking towards you, expecting you to throw yourself out of their way. That’s why I wore a blindfold and strapped the prototype to my head to walk around the grounds at Eureka Park.

Obviously, it is very difficult to describe the sensation of moving through space using only gentle taps on your forehead. I was definitely very hesitant, taking baby steps and moving forward slowly, letting the headset guide me on my journey. As the crowds gathered in front of me in a tight formation, the device’s voice guide said “tight,” telling me there was little space around me.

What impressed me was that I was able to navigate through the crowds without bumping into anyone, and I was able to get a fair way through the hall. Naturally, I can’t speak to the long-term effectiveness of the headphones, especially as someone who can see, but the technology certainly sounds like it could be very useful.

Al-Amiri said Dutlumin It will start selling its headphones in Europe in the near future, and the price is expected to reach under €10,000. Although this sounds expensive, he added that the price of training a guide dog is much higher. in United States, Guide Dog Foundation She says it costs $50,000 to raise, raise, train and place an assistance dog.