Third Eye Kit, the flagship film: full transcript

Every word spoken and every word on screen, in order, with a description of each picture. The founder speaks in his own recorded voice. No line in the film is a cloned voice. The audio description is read by a synthetic voice (Google Gemini text to speech), not by the founder. Every photo, the founder's footage and the kit's part files are real; the motion graphics are drawn in code; no image or footage in this film is AI generated.

Story

[00:00]
Picture: Black. A slow ring of warm amber light pulses out from the centre, the haptic pulse of the kit.
Said Mohaddes Sadeqi: Technology connected the rest of humanity, but left them behind.
Sound: soft haptic thumps.

[00:06]
Label on screen: Our belief.
On screen: Accessibility should not be expensive.
On screen: If it is expensive, it is not truly accessible.
On screen: It is just another barrier.

[00:15]
On screen: Third Eye Kit
On screen: Feel the world before it touches you.

[00:19]
Picture: Said Mohaddes Sadeqi, the founder, from Afghanistan, with a short beard, sits in a suit and speaks to us.
Said Mohaddes Sadeqi: Hello, my name is Said Mohaddes Sadeqi, and my story begins at the Kabul airport
Said Mohaddes Sadeqi: in August 2021.
Said Mohaddes Sadeqi: Once we got there, an explosion changed everything.

[00:29]
Picture: As he speaks of the dark, the picture sinks into deep blue, then returns to his face.
Said Mohaddes Sadeqi: I woke up 15 days later, and everything was dark.
Said Mohaddes Sadeqi: For 8 months I lived in total blindness, in a blind center.

[00:36]
Label on screen: Said Mohaddes Sadeqi.
On screen: I lost my sight in the war and was blind in both eyes. I recovered sight in one eye. I am still blind in the other.

[00:45]
Picture: the founder, Said Mohaddes Sadeqi, speaking to us.
Said Mohaddes Sadeqi: There I met with people of every kind: children, young adults, the elderly.
Said Mohaddes Sadeqi: Some are blinded by war, others by accident, by illness, or by time itself, all living in a world that often pretends not to see them.

[01:01]
Picture: the founder, Said Mohaddes Sadeqi, speaking to us.
Said Mohaddes Sadeqi: I saw their strength, their honesty, their calm. When you lose sight, you learn to hear the truth in voices, to feel kindness in the air, to move by trust.

[01:14]
Picture: the founder, Said Mohaddes Sadeqi, speaking to us.
Said Mohaddes Sadeqi: These people taught me what courage really means, and how forgotten they are in our modern world.

[01:21]
Picture: A photo: the first prototype on a table, goggles with ultrasonic sensors and a small fan on the headband, and white shoes with sensor modules on the toes.
Label on screen: History: the first prototype.
On screen: The first Third Eye, built in Afghanistan.

[01:28]
Label on screen: History: the first prototype.
On screen: Smart glasses: obstacles at head height.
On screen: Smart shoes: a vibration at the feet.
On screen: Smart gloves: indoors, at home and at work.

[01:42]
Picture: A simple drawing: an obstacle slides toward a person, and the warning grows stronger as it nears.
Label on screen: History: the first prototype.
On screen: Ultrasonic sensors warned at about 70 cm, stronger as the obstacle came closer.
On screen: The glasses used a fixed distance. The gloves, made for indoors, could be set by hand.
Sound: a beep that quickens as the obstacle nears.

[01:52]
Label on screen: History: the first prototype.
On screen: A GPS and GSM pack sent live location to family with a phone call. No strong internet needed.
On screen: A light sensor lit LEDs in the dark, so others could see the wearer. Built on Arduino.

[02:00]
Picture: Photos from the blind center in Herat: a blind man wears the goggles while the founder explains; the same test from another angle, others watching; a blind man in dark glasses at a desk, the goggles beside him.
Label on screen: History: field test, Herat.
On screen: Tested at a blind center in Herat, with the people it is for.
On screen: One user called it his magical friend.

[02:13]
Picture: The founder reads from a page to a seated group, the kit in hand; then he holds the goggles, explaining them to a seated elder.
Label on screen: History.
On screen: Taken into the community.

[02:20]
Picture: At the TEKNOFEST booth, the shoes, the goggles and an Arduino build on the table while a judge tries a wristband. Then a news article from Anadolu Agency.
Label on screen: History.
On screen: TEKNOFEST 2022 finalist, Best Presentation.
On screen: In the press: Anadolu Agency, 4 September 2022.

[02:28]
On screen: Tens of kits built by our team.
On screen: Hundreds more built by others, because the design is open.

Engineering

[02:35]
On screen: Engineering
On screen: Real now: the second generation, in build, nearing MVP.

[02:39]
Picture: A 3D rendering of the second generation kit, built from its real part files: a collar strip, a waist belt with a sensor pod at the front, two ankle bands, and small motor pods along each band. The parts come together and the kit turns slowly.
Label on screen: Rendered from the real part files.
On screen: A collar, a belt and two ankle bands.
On screen: Twenty vibration motors.
Sound: soft haptic thumps.

[02:52]
Picture: The belt pod's drawing, with each sensor marked in turn.
Label on screen: Sensor head, belt pod.
On screen: Two time of flight grids: forward, 4 by 4 at 60 Hz; ground, 8 by 8 at 15 Hz, tilted 35 degrees.
On screen: A 24 GHz radar, for moving things only, over UART at 256000 baud.
On screen: Two sonars, left and right, 20 degrees out, their 5 V echo through a divider.
On screen: An IMU for orientation, and to tell the wearer's own movement apart from what the radar sees.
Sound: a tick for each sensor, a sweep for the radar, a ping for the sonars.

[03:10]
Picture: The real circuit schematic of the belt hub, slowly panning, with the two controllers marked and a line drawn between them.
Label on screen: From the record's KiCad schematic.
On screen: RP2350 reflex controller: the warning path.
On screen: ESP32-S3 spine: Bluetooth LE to the phone.
On screen: An isolation boundary: the warning works with no phone and no internet.

[03:23]
Picture: The kit turns. The collar glows amber with a pulse, then the belt, then each ankle.
Label on screen: Rendered from the real part files.
On screen: One DRV2605L closed loop driver per motor.
On screen: Three multiplexers, twenty channels: belt 8, collar 4, ankles 8.
On screen: Where it buzzes is where it would hit you. Stronger means closer.
Sound: soft haptic thumps.

[03:39]
Picture: Exploded drawings of the belt pod, the motor pod and the chest cradle, from the record's part files.
Label on screen: From the record's OpenSCAD parts.
On screen: Magnetic pogo pin breakaways between the bands.
On screen: A protected 3.7 V LiPo, 3000 to 5000 mAh; TP4056 and DW01; a 5 V boost for sonar and radar; an inline fuse; a 3.3 V regulator.
On screen: Belt pod about 128 by 62 by 28 mm, a design value.

[03:52]
Picture: A line of light travels from the world, through the sensors and the controller, to a motor on the skin.
On screen: From the world to the skin in about 70 milliseconds.
On screen: Modeled, until the bench measures it.
Sound: soft ticks, then a thump.

Vision

[04:01]
On screen: Vision
On screen: In development.

[04:05]
Picture: the founder, Said Mohaddes Sadeqi, speaking to us.
Label on screen: Planned: the online university and the social platform.
Said Mohaddes Sadeqi: I'm the founder and president of Third Eye Worldwide, a global house for the visually impaired. Its mission is to connect and empower every blind person around the world.
Said Mohaddes Sadeqi: It will serve as an online university, a social platform, and a technology brand that makes assistive tools for the visually impaired.

[04:23]
Picture: A screen recording from the website: a top-down street, a person walks along the sidewalk, and a small body beside it lights in amber at the collar, then the belt, as obstacles come near.
Label on screen: On the website now. The street simulation: in development.
On screen: TEK is a platform, not only a kit.
On screen: Practice in a simulated street. Then live in the real one, in the same language of touch.

[04:36]
Label on screen: In development.
On screen: A braille or refreshable display.
On screen: An input for the blind person.
On screen: Deeper apps.
On screen: Smart glasses.
On screen: Partnerships.

[04:44]
On screen: At least 2.2 billion people live with a vision impairment. Source: World Health Organization.
On screen: Nine in ten people with vision loss live in low and middle income countries. Source: Lancet Global Health Commission on Global Eye Health, 2021.
On screen: Access to assistive technology can be as low as 3 percent of need. Source: WHO and UNICEF.
On screen: 89 percent of visually impaired people live in low and middle income countries. Source: Bourne and colleagues, The Lancet Global Health, 2017.

[05:00]
On screen: Anyone, anywhere, can build it: open, affordable, simple to make.
On screen: Ability, talent and passion, not deficit.
On screen: The third eye is the eye of the heart. No one's heart is blind.
On screen: Nothing about us without us.

[05:11]
On screen: Test it.
On screen: Back the mission.
On screen: Connect us to funders.
On screen: Fund it.
On screen: tek.sadeqi.me

[05:19]
On screen: The Third Eye Kit is developed by Third Eye Worldwide in collaboration with researchers at Columbia University's Computer Enabled Abilities Lab (CEAL).
On screen: Third Eye Worldwide is an Oregon nonprofit corporation that has filed for IRS recognition of 501(c)(3) status; upon recognition, which is subject to the IRS's discretion, donations are expected to qualify as deductible charitable contributions retroactively.
On screen: Every photo, the founder's footage and the kit's part files are real. The motion graphics are drawn in code. No image or footage in this film is AI generated.