The Pakistan Mobile App Awards is an annual competition governed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in collaboration with Ministry of IT and Telecom Pakistan, Special Talent Exchange Program (STEP) and Telenor.

The program has been developed to promote new ideas and push innovation in technology its accessibility. This year the participants were challenged to work on digital inclusion, embracing the needs of people with disabilities, the theme was hence titled as “Embracing Mobile Accessibility”.

Representing Orient Electronics and its technology wing BlueEast Pvt. Ltd., the team of Smart Devices entered the competition with a home automation product and a disability application for visually impaired individuals.

Their solution which won the first prize in the Pakistan Mobile App Awards was based on a smart switch board and an accompanying application that allows you to remotely control your switches and plugged in appliances.

“We utilized the Google Talkback function in Android to design a user interface for visually impaired people,” explains the team leader for Orient Smart Devices, Abdul Ghaffar,

“The application hence comes with vibration and audible feedback that enables disabled people to control their living spaces through their mobile phones.”

The team is also working on voice enabled commands to further enhance their application accessibility.

The idea stemmed from the team’s personal motivation to address day-to-day challenges for disabled persons,

 “In 2014, a close friend was involved in terrible accident that disabled him. When I went to see him, I realized how difficult life was for him. He could not sleep because the lights and the air conditioner were on and he could not switch them off without help,”

explains Abdul Ghaffar,

“I wanted to do something to change that. This is why I developed Smart Devices and now with BlueEast we can focus on making this a reality.”

While the scope of Smart Devices has evolved considerably after acquisition, the focus of improving accessibility is still at the organization’s heart, albeit now reinforced by BlueEast’s backing and product vision.

“We are now working on multiple fronts. We want to be home, offices, automobiles, healthcare and even the industry,”

says a spokesperson from BlueEast Pvt. Ltd.

The award winning team has already furnished a ready for market product in collaboration with Orient Electronics which will hit the market soon.

“It’s been a crucial couple of months as the BlueEast team has been involved in product prototyping and its market ready eComfort component. However, we are committed to deliver on our goals of improving accessibility on a global scale,”

commented the CEO of the company, Abdul Rehman Talat,

“We are proud to have won the Pakistan Mobile App Awards and our excited to have Ghaffar lead the development in this segment from the front.”

About Smart Devices

Smart Devices, a former incubate of Plan9 is among the first Pakistani startups intends to focus on home automation and make the life easier for people with disabilities. It allows you to control your home appliances from any corner of the globe. Recently, Smart Devices has been acquired by Orient’s Internet of Things (IoT) division.

The post Orient Smart Devices wins First Place at Pakistan Mobile App Awards appeared first on Techlist.

Soon winners of Mobile App Awards will be announced by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority.

The finale is planned to be on 31st January, 2017. The event will be graced by the President of Pakistan himself.

Developers had  developed various apps that would help the disabled people to conduct the daily activities through mobile phones.

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority and Internet Society Asia-Pacific Bureau plans to conduct Pakistan Mobile App Awards 2016 together in association with Ministry of IT & Telecom, Telenor & Special Talent Exchange Program (STEP).

These awards are to promote the need of development of applications of mobile that can fulfill the needs of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). The theme for the year was  “Embracing Mobile Accessibility.”

The participants were guided by mentors about the developments of app. The deadline to submit  application for developed apps was December 10, 2016.

There were total 30 applications submitted. PTA has finally received 11 developed applications. These applications were developed keeping in mind different disabilities of people but to the surprise no such application was developed that could aid people who are hearing impaired.

Chairman of PTA Syed Ismail Shah said,

“Application will enable the people with disabilities to live like normal people with the help of mobile phones that could enable them to do shopping, selling, submitting utility bills and communicating with other people for everyday matters.”

He further added,

“The event will be held on 31st of January, 2017 and will be graced by the President of Pakistan.”

The prize money is contributed by Telenor Pakistan. It is finalized that the 1st prize of the competition is about Rs. 300,000/- and the runner up will get a share of Rs. 200,000/-. The participant at the third position will receive Rs 100,000/-. The participant with amazing ideas and innovative work will also get consolation awards. To such participants will be selected and will be given Rs. 50000/- each.

The last date for submission of applications was 25 August, 2016.

The applications received by PTA were to help disabled people. Some of them are listed below.

Pocket Directorate

This helps a person who is visually impaired. With an audio input the app is going to receive direction and with audio output it will tell the directions.

iCataract

Another app to aid patients of vision loss. The app is determined to provide a reasonable  and self operative  cataract detection and diagnosis system.

Power eye

No more need for glasses.The app works as glasses for people with low vision. Google Cardboard will act as supporting platform.

An app that will serve as glasses for low vision people, using Google cardboard as a supporting platform.

Get a side

“Get a Side” application is a sensor based android mobile application. This helps blind people to move easily and independently.  It works as sensor for the obstacles or objects and than with audio output device that is connected via bluetooth it guides blind people.

Tell me

Another app to help visually impaired people and help them live independently.

Disabled people are part of our society we should embrace them and help them in every way possible.

The post Pakistan Mobile App Awards 2016 Winners to be Announce on January 31, 2017 appeared first on Techlist.