Early prototype. Not available yet.
A phone you wear and talk to. It sees for you, and it gets family when you need help.
My Eyes Phone is an open-source project that turns an ordinary unlocked Android phone, worn on a strap, into a voice and camera companion for blind elders, including people living with mild dementia.
There's no screen to see and no buttons to learn. Say the companion's name and a warm voice answers. It was designed with one real family in mind, and it's being built in the open so any family can use it.
How it's meant to soundAn example conversation
- Wearer:Hey Rhett, what am I looking at?
- Companion:That's your dresser, darlin'. Your hairbrush is on the right.
- Wearer:I'm lost. Where's my chair?
- Companion:Turn a little to your left… two small steps… your chair is right in front of you. Reach out with your right hand.
How it works
Wear it. Talk to it. That's all.
Everything happens by voice. The person wearing it never needs to see or touch the screen, which stays dark the whole time.
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1. Wear it
The phone hangs on a crossbody strap with a breakaway clasp: screen against the chest, camera facing out, so it sees what the wearer is facing.
It runs one app and nothing else, so nothing can be opened, closed or changed by accident.
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2. Talk to it
Say the companion's name, like “Hey Rhett,” or press and hold a volume button. A chime means it's listening.
Every state has its own sound, so silence is never the answer. It gives the same warm reply to the twentieth “what day is it?” and never says “you already asked.”
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3. It sees for you
“What am I looking at?” or “Read this to me” takes a photo and describes it: the nearest, most useful thing first, with directions like “on your right, about an arm's length.”
“I'm lost” starts guide mode, which talks them back to their chair or bed using photos of their own room that family recorded once.
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4. It calls family for help
“Help!” works without the name, because in an emergency they may not remember it. A detected fall works too.
After a quick check, it texts the family with a photo and location, then calls them on speaker, one after another, until someone replies that they're on it.
And the everyday things
- Calls. “Call my daughter.” It only calls people on the family list, plus 911.
- Family drop-ins. When family call, it answers by itself on speaker, after a chime and an announcement of who's calling. It's an ordinary phone call, so family need no app.
- Texts. It reads family messages aloud, writes replies, and reads each one back before sending.
- The day. Time, date, weather, reminders family set (“2 o'clock, pills”), and reading mail, labels and pill bottles.
- Family control by text. Family can text the phone status, ring to find it, or remind 2pm pills. No server or app needed.
- When the internet drops. It still tells the time, makes calls, reads texts aloud and sends help alerts.
What makes it different
It sees for them, and it needs nothing from them but their voice.
Good tools for blind people exist, and so do good companions for people with memory loss. Each of the closest products we know of covers part of this. We haven't found one that covers all of it.
| Product | Sees for them | No screen or buttons | Worn all day | Made for memory loss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| My Eyes Phone Designed to. Not built yet. | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Be My Eyes, Seeing AI, Google Lookout Phone apps | Yes | No | No | No |
| Meta Ray-Ban glasses with Be My Eyes | Yes | Yes | As glasses | No |
| Amical Screen-free landline handset | No | Yes | No | Yes |
| Elsy, ElliQ Voice companions | No | Elsy only | No | Elsy only |
| Medical alert pendant | No | Yes | Yes | No |
And a few things we haven't found anywhere else
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“I'm lost in my own room.”
Guide mode walks them back to their chair or bed, using photos of their room that the family recorded once.
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Family can drop in.
A call from someone on the family list answers itself on speaker, after a chime and “your daughter is calling to check on you.” Anyone else is turned away.
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Built for a memory that slips.
The same warm answer every time. The family's own words for painful questions, given the same way each time they're asked. A gentle warning when a letter looks like a scam.
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Open and family-owned.
No subscription to us and no account with us. A family sets it up on an ordinary unlocked phone and can see every line of how it works.
Comparable devices you can get today
None of these does everything My Eyes Phone is designed to do, but each does part of it well, and all of them exist now.
- Be My Eyes: a free app that connects to sighted volunteers or an AI that describes photos. It needs someone to hold and aim the phone.
- Seeing AI (Microsoft) and Lookout (Google): free apps that read text and describe scenes. They're built around the touchscreen.
- Ray-Ban Meta glasses: describe what's in front of you by voice and can call a Be My Eyes volunteer. They're worn as glasses, and need a paired phone and an app to set up.
- Envision Glasses: smart glasses made for blind and low-vision users, which read text, describe scenes and can call a contact.
- ElliQ and similar companions: voice companions for older adults, with reminders and conversation. They can't see.
- Medical alert pendants: certified help buttons and fall detection, monitored around the clock. They don't talk or see, and they're the right choice when the stakes are high.
Safety and privacy
Built for people who can't check its work.
The person wearing it may not be able to see what it's doing or remember what it said. So the important protections are written into the app's code, not left to the AI's good behaviour.
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It only listens for its name
Until it hears the wake phrase or the button, sound is handled on the phone and goes nowhere.
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It never watches in secret
Every family drop-in starts with a chime and an announcement of who's there. There's no silent listening or watching, and that's enforced in code, not a setting.
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No eyes in private places
Guide mode stops at the bathroom door. An alert photo that looks like a bathroom is dropped on the phone before anything is sent. Families can turn alert photos off entirely.
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A closed circle
It only calls, texts and answers people on the family list, plus 911. Unknown callers are turned away, which shuts out phone scams. The list can only be changed on the phone itself.
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Read back before it's sent
Texts and calls are confirmed aloud before anything leaves the phone, and rate limits stop a confused loop from flooding the family.
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Honest about what it is
It's warm and a little charming, but if someone asks “are you a real person?” it answers kindly and truthfully.
Where the information goes
- Sound before the wake phrase
- Stays on the phone. Not stored.
- The conversation, after waking
- Sent to the AI voice service the family chooses: OpenAI, Google Gemini, or a setup they host themselves. See Choosing the AI voice below; each keeps audio under its own policy. It's the family's own account, with a spending limit they set. Not stored on the phone.
- Photos
- Sent to the AI service to be described. Sent to family only with a help or fall alert, and those are kept on the phone for 30 days.
- Logs of help calls, falls and battery
- Kept on the phone for 90 days and summarised by text to the main family contact.
- Anything sent to us
- Nothing. No account, no analytics, no tracking. This website doesn't track you either.
What it is not
- Not a medical alert device. Fall detection and help alerts are best-effort and uncertified. They depend on battery, signal and family answering. If you need certified monitoring, keep a medical alert service alongside it.
- Not a mobility aid. Guide mode helps in a familiar room. It doesn't replace a cane, a guide dog or a person, and it can be wrong about obstacles. It can't see the floor right at their feet, so it never says the way is clear.
- Not a doctor. It never gives medical or medication advice. It gets family instead.
It's meant to be worn with the wearer's agreement, explained to them in the companion's own voice. Visitors and home aides can end up in a photo, so families are asked to tell the regular ones.
Choosing the AI voice
The companion's voice comes from an AI service, and that's an honest choice for each family, not one we make for you. The app is built so any of these can power it, and we'll say plainly what each one costs you in money and in privacy.
| Option | Who runs it | Cost to the family | Privacy | Setup |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI Realtime Paid cloud service | OpenAI | Pay as you go, on the family's own account with a spending cap | Audio goes to OpenAI and is kept under its API policy | Easiest: one account and one key |
| Google Gemini Live Paid cloud service | Pay as you go, on the family's own account with a spending cap | Audio goes to Google and is kept under its API policy | Easy: one account and one key | |
| Self-hosted Open-source voice pipeline | The family, or someone they trust, on their own server | The server, plus whichever speech and AI services they pick | As private as they make it, up to fully local | Hardest: needs someone technical |
| My Eyes Phone hosted Planned, funded by donations | The project, as a secure service | Free to families | Built to keep nothing it doesn't need; audited and published openly | Easiest of all: nothing to sign up for |
The free option isn't available yet. We're working to fund a secure, free service through donations, so no family has to choose between their privacy and their budget. See How can I help?
Where it stands
Early days. There's nothing to buy or download yet.
The design is written down and reviewed. A rough test app is being built to measure the hardest parts on a real phone before the real app is built. Nothing has been tested with a wearer yet.
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Done · October 2026
The open specification
Every behaviour, safety rule and pass/fail test written down and reviewed.
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Now
Risk testing
A throwaway test app that measures what could sink the project: the camera working with the screen off, the battery cost of listening for its name, false wake-ups with the TV on, answering calls by itself, how quickly the voice responds over mobile data, and how much of the floor the camera can see.
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Next
Talk, see, call
The first real version. Done when a blind tester uses it for a whole day without touching the screen.
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Then
Texts, family control, and “I'm lost”
Reading and sending texts, family commands by text, guide mode, the help chain and fall detection.
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Then
A two-week pilot
With the family it was designed for. Done when they want to keep it.
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Later
Version 1.0
A free public release with a setup guide clear enough that a stranger's family can set it up from the guide alone.
What it should take, once it's ready
- An unlocked Android phone. It has to be unlocked, because carrier-branded phones often block what the app needs to do. The reference phone is a Google Pixel 9a.
- A crossbody case with a breakaway clasp, and a magnetic charging stand the phone snaps onto by feel.
- The wearer's existing phone plan, plus an estimated $5–20 a month of AI voice and vision usage, paid directly to the AI service.
Our current estimate is about $400–460 for the recommended setup, or $180–230 on a budget phone (October 2026 prices). Running costs will be measured in the prototype.
Open source
Free, and built in the open.
My Eyes Phone will be released under the Apache-2.0 license: free to use, change and share. The specification, design documents and code will be published here.
Source coming soon. Until then, check back here, or write to hello@myeyesphone.com.
How can I help?
Give the old phone in your drawer
That's the drawer drive. Most homes have a perfectly good Android phone sitting in a drawer. Wiped, reset and set up, it can become someone's eyes. A phone can help if it:
- runs Android 13 or newer, with a working camera and a battery that still lasts most of a day,
- is unlocked, or paid off so the carrier will unlock it, and
- isn't cracked badly enough to cut a hand.
Please reset it and remove your accounts first. We'll erase it again before it goes to a family. The drive isn't open yet. Write to us with the model and we'll tell you if it fits and where to send it.
Help fund the free voice service
We're raising money for a secure, free voice service, so no family has to pay a monthly AI bill or give up their privacy to use this. That isn't open yet either. Write to us to pledge or to hear when it opens.
Tell us what you know
- People who are blind or have low vision, and people caring for someone who is. Your experience counts for more than any code review.
- Dementia-care professionals, especially on how the companion should answer painful or repeated questions.
- Android developers who know Kotlin, telephony, the camera or on-device speech.
- Anyone who knows of a product that already does this well. We'll point people to it.
Pass it on
Know a family caring for a blind parent or grandparent? Send them this page.
Write to hello@myeyesphone.com. A real person reads every message.