Support
The Third Eye Kit is being built to turn distance into touch, so a blind person can feel a doorframe, a glass door, a step down, before it arrives. It is built for blind and visually impaired people, and it has not passed its tests yet, so keep traveling the way you travel now (see Using TEK today, linked in the footer). Every amount on this page buys a touchable thing. What a gift means, in one page: the kit equation lives at How to help.
I lost my sight in the war in Afghanistan. In a blind support centre I learned to move again, and there I built the first Third Eye Kit: glasses that spoke through an earphone, a vibrating band worn at the hand, and sensing shoes. It reached the TEKNOFEST 2022 finals and took the Best Presentation award. We built and gave out tens of kits ourselves, blind wearers used them in Herat and in Turkey, and because the design was open, hundreds more were built by the people who needed them.
Those wearers taught us the lesson that runs this whole program. They rejected voice guidance in the ear they already navigate by. They wanted to feel the world directly. That is our own field experience, and we trust it.
So the second generation, being built now, speaks in touch. It follows three laws, in plain words: it speaks where your body is, the closer a thing is the more you feel it, and if it moves, the feeling follows the motion. It is built to replace the mobility aid; that claim waits at a public replacement test, and until it passes, keep traveling the way you travel now; the notice Using TEK today says how. The belt keeps warning with the phone off. Firmware is specified, not written; every latency figure is modeled, not measured; we say so plainly and we publish the whole record.
The Third Eye Kit is developed by Third Eye Worldwide in collaboration with researchers at Columbia University's Computer Enabled Abilities Lab (CEAL).
Track one, the headline
Every part, drawing, and design decision is published. We are still testing the second generation, and we will publish what a kit costs once the parts are final. The building itself is about three days, still a target being verified.
Track two
Not everyone has hands for a soldering iron, a printer nearby, or the hours. Your gift buys the parts, and the kit is built and given, never sold. A gift that covers one kit's parts may carry a dedication with it.
Pre-order one, five or ten kits
The motors for one kit
Twenty coin motors, the skin side of the language.
The whole touch system for one kit
Motors, their drivers, and the switches that let twenty speak at once.
The senses for one kit
Two laser grids, the radar, two sonars, and the motion sensor.
One paid testing session
An hour with a blind tester, paid, wearing the belt until the language makes sense.
The parts of one complete kit
Everything on the parts list, one whole second generation kit for a blind or visually impaired person who cannot build one.
A batch of ten kits
Ten complete parts sets, a build round for a centre or a class.
Door one
The direct way. Pick anything from the giving menu above, or any amount at all: every gift lands in parts, paid blind testers, and the work between them.
Donate to Third Eye Worldwide, by emailIf you would like to be listed on the supporters wall, say so in your message and tell us the name to show. We list people only with their consent, in their own words, and we never show amounts.
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.
Door two
For institutional funders and research gifts. We connect you with the lab through Columbia's own channels; there is no payment link here.
Email us to start the conversationDoor three
Parts, equipment, larger gifts, and corporate matching once our IRS status is confirmed. Tell us what you have in mind and we will find where it fits.
Email us about sponsoringDoor four
Blindness agencies, Lighthouse organizations, vocational rehabilitation counselors, orientation and mobility trainers, and schools: you are invited to demos, pilots, and group builds. Bring your members; we bring the kits and the manual.
Email us about a demo or pilotSo far, the record is plain: parts for the second generation bench and prototypes, from the published parts list. Paid testing sessions begin with the evaluation milestones, and tester pay will be reported here in the same plain words.
Third Eye Worldwide is a nonprofit. We do not sell the Third Eye Kit, we do not sell names, and we do not advertise for anyone. Recognition here is a thank-you, never a purchase. A gift of any size is welcome, and every supporter is thanked the same way.
This space is kept for the people who wear the kit: short audio clips with transcripts, real users, real names, shared with their consent. Nothing here will ever be invented. The first voices arrive with the second generation testing rounds.