By Hanah Tabios
After a random attack cost him his vision 16 years ago, a University of the Philippines-Diliman mathematics graduate built a business empire that now develops innovations to help visually impaired and blind people.
(Photo Marx Melencio Facebook account)
Rising above adversity, Marx Melencio, 39, established a company in 2005 that leverages open source technology to enhance the lives of persons with disabilities (PWDs), with the help of his wife Cherry.
Today, he is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Grayscale Marketing Consultancy, a local company that offers digital marketing, software programming, multilingual call center support, and Web and ICT develop¬ment services.
During the Philippine Startup Week organized by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Ortigas Center, Pasig City last Tuesday, Melencio was the final presenter among the 15 start-up research grantees of the Philippine Council for Industry, Energy, and Emerging Technology Research and Development (PCIEERD). It was at this event where he narrated how he got inspired to develop a technology to help the visually impaired.
Melencio recalled that in 2003, he was a victim of a presumed random gun attack in Cubao, Quezon City. At that time, he was a 23-year-old Mathematics graduate from the University of the Philippines-Diliman, who had just started to build his family with high-school sweetheart Cherry.
“Binaril ako habang bumibili ng fried rice at litsilog (lechon silog) kasama ko asawa ko (I was shot while buying fried rice and lechon silog with my wife),” he said.
He was shot twice. The first bullet hit him three millimeters from his heart, while the second bullet missed his brain by two millimeters.
Though he was fortunate to survive the attack, the second bullet hit his optic nerve, causing him to lose his eyesight.
“Noong nabulag ako, naranasan ko ang hirap ng paghahanap ng opportunities dito sa Pilipinas, to think na educated na ako college level sa UP Diliman (When I became blind, I experienced the difficulty of finding opportunities here in the Philippines, and to think I’m educated at the college level at UP Diliman),” he told the Manila Bulletin in an interview.
But he said his near-death experience gave birth to an idea to develop a technology that offers more independence to the blind. In 2016, VISION AI Labs was launched as the company’s technology research and development laboratory.
At the DOST event, Marx presented Smart VISION, Grayscale’s current carrier product which is devised as an open source, do-it-yourself pair of 3D printed sunglasses with electronic components.
The device is powered by machine learning, deep learning, and the SeeingWithSound algorithm.
“Ang ginagawa niya, yung nakikita ng camera dinedescribe niya doon sa blind through audi¬tory feedback. Meron siyang phone conducting speaker (What it does is the camera gives descriptions to the user through auditory feed¬back through its phone conducting speaker),” he said.
SMART Vision aims to improve the mobility and interaction of completely blind and visually impaired individuals through 3D soundscape cues, spoken AI (artificial intelligence) powered auditory feedback, and haptic perception of their immediate environment.
Apart from that, Marx said one interesting feature of the device is its usability in class as it also reads out text on physical objects like books and signboards.
The product is not yet out on market as they plan to patent it first. Once optimized, Marx said it will be priced from P15,000 to P20,000.