Cluj-based deep-tech startup .lumen, known for its AI-powered glasses for the visually impaired, has joined the EUR 7.8 million program VR Health Champions as a flagship SME.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Through the VR Health Champions project, .lumen will co-develop its second-generation product, a smaller, more refined version designed for global markets, the company said. The collaboration will enable testing across multiple countries, languages, and cultures, supporting international validation and user adaptation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
VR Health Champions, co-funded by the European Union, is a three-year project that aims to break down market, clinical, and regulatory barriers in healthcare across less developed regions of Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe, while fast-tracking the advancement of VR\/AR applications.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It focuses on five flagship SMEs, namely\u202f.lumen, MEEVA, MedApp, Metaskills, and Virtuleap. The total project cost is estimated at EUR 7.88 million, with EUR 5.82 million co-funded by the Interregional Innovation Investments (I3) instrument under the European Regional Development Fund.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Using Pedestrian Autonomous Driving (PAD AI), .lumen\u2019s technology brings the capabilities of a self-driving car into a wearable device, guiding users through real-world environments via gentle haptic feedback.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFor thousands of years, the blind had only two tools: the cane and the guide dog. Yet there are only 28,000 guide dogs for over 300 million people. When we surpass 28,000 devices shipped, we will change a paradigm that\u2019s millennia old,\u201d Cornel Amariei, CEO and founder of .lumen, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWith VR Health Champions, we\u2019re taking our next leap, building a globally scalable version of the .lumen glasses and learning from diverse environments. This project marks our first coordinated step towards global expansion, starting with Europe,\u201d added Amariei.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEurope has the talent and technology to lead in healthcare XR; what\u2019s often missing are the bridges between innovators, healthcare systems, and markets,\u201d said Cristina Costa, Project Coordinator at VR Health Champions. \u201cBy connecting key players across regions and sectors, we are helping to create strong European value chains that support innovation, strengthen digital competitiveness, and enable healthcare systems to benefit from cutting-edge solutions. This initiative is about ensuring that Europe doesn\u2019t just follow global trends in XR healthcare but actively shapes them.\u201d<\/p>\n
.lumen is a Romanian research startup developing Pedestrian Autonomous Driving (PAD AI), a technology first showcased through the .lumen glasses for the blind.\u00a0<\/p>\n
(Photo: the company)<\/em><\/p>\n simona@romania-insider.com<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cluj-based deep-tech startup .lumen, known for its AI-powered glasses for the visually impaired, has joined the EUR 7.8 million program VR Health Champions as a flagship SME.\u00a0\u00a0 Through the VR Health Champions project, .lumen will co-develop its second-generation product, a smaller, more refined version designed for global markets, the company said. The collaboration will enable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7443\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ofero.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}