This whole summer, the biped team has worked on one of the biggest updates of NOA! As a reminder:

• NOA AI is the internal software of your NOA device

• NOA companion is the smartphone app

Below, you’ll find a full list of changes. Watch the video for a 3-minute summary!

1️⃣ Obstacle detection:

• Improved detection of stairs going down (warns the user earlier)

• Introduction of the “buzz” sound for large obstacles like walls to follow them gently. Great to complement sense of mass / shore-lining techniques.

• Turn off obstacle detection by doing a double press on O2 button. Super useful when you’re entering a very busy area!

2️⃣ AI features:

• New AI model, twice as fast!

• Louder voices, very useful with bone-conduction headphones outdoors.

• Voices can now speak faster. Change the “Playback speed” in the app to do so.

• More reliable description of the location of objects in space

• A2 button now describes the path exactly ahead, more specifically the potential obstacles on that segment

• Crosswalk detection now describes the full layout of the intersection, following official recommendations from Foundations of Orientation and Mobility

• Door detection now picks up more doors, same for chair detection

3️⃣ Utility and stability:

• Corrected the displayed battery percentage

• In companion mode for O&M trainers, you can now read the text that the AI model is saying

• Now supports both imperial and metrics for US customers

• NOA now speaks Polish

Oh! And your old “biped app” was now renamed to “NOA Companion” on the AppStore and PlayStore. There are both app and device updates available. Simply download the latest app update from your store, and click on “My NOA” and “Update” to run the update.

Testimonials

We have organized together with the Vista Center for the Blind a demo day in San Jose. The event was completely full, we’re so excited for the feedback we’re getting from the community on this new update.

We also attended SWOMA in Texas, where Marco and Mael, co-founders of biped, had the chance to demo NOA to over 100 Orientation and Mobility specialists. We’ve been very actively working with the O&M community to build the perfect tool that will not replace, but complement the current approach. Here’s an example of the feedback we’re getting :

To test NOA, ask questions, find nearest distributor, just schedule a chat with our team:

Visit our website to check out our upcoming events!

• Demo days in Belgium: November 26th and 27th

• Demo days in California: December 6th to December 15th

That’s it! We’re currently working on the new AI-powered GPS version of NOA and will bring updates to our models to support bus stop finding.

If you have other ideas or things you’d like to see improved, let us know by writing us on [email protected]

We hope you’ll enjoy this update!

The biped team