Smartphones and navigation apps have become second nature these days. But for people who are blind and have low vision, it's not so simple. Haptic has been building a non-visual, non-verbal way of telling people where to go, and they have decided it's time to scale up and take it global.

Haptic was on stage today as part of the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, showing work from concept to prototype and then to platform. The company began in 2017 when, following an accident that left a friend without sight, a group of colleagues started looking into whether it was possible for someone to navigate without visual or audio cues.

There is also adequate audio usage in the reading of display as well as audible step-by-step in applications, but such conveniences cannot be in hand always and not to talk of praxis. Of course, while talking on the subject, co-founder and head of the business, Enzo Caruso says, "Why receive info less robust, more intuitive and more accessible than this. Everybody can imagine a kind of touch or pressure sense. It's global and universal.".

An innovation with which Caruso credits it and has patented — advances the way vibration, combined with a host of other sensory modalities, can be applied toward communicating the simple and intuitive idea that the user is going in the right direction. And it will transmit a steady beat, but speed up or escalate if you are off-course; they call it a "haptic corridor." Well, I can hardly even picture it, but I am told it is intuitive enough that you get a feel for it after a few seconds.

The advantages of the approach are plentiful: It works in any language, requires no special hardware, and can be used to direct someone down a crowded city sidewalk, an open landscape, or even inside a building (though that part is still in development).

Originally this haptic corridor was communicated through a wearable of their own, but since then the company has embraced the progress made in the market.

"Technology evolves when you evolve, and smartwatches improved. So do you want to be competitive against the Googles and Apples out there.or do you want them on your side? Take the SDK from thousands to billions of users," as told by Caruso.

CEO and co-founder Kevin Yoo said this was the first year the company shifted its focus from proving out the product to putting it in as many hands as possible. A partnership with the likes of Google or Uber would certainly go a long way toward doing that.

Supposing, he said, you did not need to whip out your phone to walk straight to the Uber waiting for you at the airport or to navigate through a crowded venue by the beat of your smartwatch. Anyone might find that handy, but certainly, those with vision impairments may find it an everyday navigation device.

"Google and Apple, telecoms, Uber, governments… all of this is coming together into a common ground," said Yoo. With the capabilities of today's smartwatches and phones, combined with a new software focus at Haptic on "hyper-accurate location," they hope to introduce indoor navigation and integration with other services.

Haptic is currently collaborating with Waymap, Cooley, WID, and Infinite Access, among others. They just signed a million-dollar contract with Aira, an app allowing people with vision impairments to get live assistance through their phone from a sighted helper. The navigation via haptic would reduce that assistant's need to give detailed step-by-step directions-they would simply drop pins on a map or even do other services.

This, and not monetizing their own app, is how they will make money, Yoo emphasized: "We have a free app available to the world, live in 31 countries right now… and we have the licensing and integration model — that's the business."

The company is mid-raise and hoping to close a funding round that will let them pursue bigger partners (the Ubers and T-Mobiles of the world) in earnest.