The start-up based in Petit-Quevilly has designed an innovative tactile map concept for people with a visual impairment. Virtuoz is already in place at Disneyland Paris, the Assemblée Nationale and will be at the Fan Zones at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
Getting your bearings in a new place is simply impossible when you have a visual impairment. “A sight-impaired athlete told us that she had to get on all fours and feel around the walls to find plug sockets in her hotel room to charge her phone…,” says Céline Favy-Huin. After hearing about these demeaning situations, Céline and her business partner Sylvain Huin decided to use their expertise to help people with a visual impairment.
They set up a company specialising in composite additive printing in Toulouse in 2015. Feelobject is primarily a subcontractor for the automotive and aviation industry. The entrepreneurial pair’s human and social values saw them explore an R&D business based on disability. “At the time, people were making homemade prosthetics on 3D printers. We knew that we could do so much more using professional equipment. We did some research and realised that there was little to nothing available for people with a visual impairment,” Céline Favy-Huin recalls.
Virtuoz, the right way to find your way
So they came up with Virtuoz, a tactile and audio map for sites welcoming the general public and businesses. It has a raised relief with symbols, contrasts and voice information into enable sight-impaired people to create a detailed mental image of a new place. That way they can get around safely and independently. “From the outset, we worked a lot with users to get to grips with their needs and make Virtuoz as intuitive as possible,” highlights the co-director of Feelobject.
Why Normandy? Virtuoz Feelobject’s Strategic Move into a Supportive Ecosystem
After the pandemic, Céline Favy-Huin and Sylvain Huin decided to focus solely on Virtuoz, which meant they needed to base themselves in a dynamic area open to disabilities and women in business. After a few months searching, the Feelobject founders set their sights on Rouen as it fulfilled all their criteria. Since then, Feelobject has been based in a small incubator in Petit-Quevilly and works mainly with local subcontractors.
Support from councils, grants, help from other businesses, the proactive French Tech community, nearby Paris and the way of life: Normandy has everything a start-up could wish for.
With Virtuoz, Feelobject sees the bigger picture
The two entrepreneurs are now working on an outdoor version of Virtuoz to go into parks, gardens and transport hubs (train stations, airports). They also plan to take Feelobject worldwide, primarily to North America.
That doesn’t mean they’ve forgotten the French market. There are over a million sites for the general public in France, but very few have the right equipment to welcome visually-impaired visitors… It’s a huge market. “We may be a business with turnover to think about, but our main focus is to help people with a visual impairment to go out, work or go to school like everyone else.”
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