Ashwat Prasanna is the founder of EyeSight and a student at The International School Bangalore, India. His work focuses on making STEM education accessible for visually impaired students. Inspired by a visually-impaired friend unable to pursue science due to lack of accessible resources, Prasanna founded EyeSight as an ultra-affordable AI-powered smartglasses system designed to enable visually impaired learners to read printed and handwritten texts, understand scientific concepts, and navigate their environment independently.

EyeSight addresses a critical gap in India, where over 30 million moderate to severely visually impaired individuals, including 11 million children, face barriers in accessing education beyond high school. Conventional tools such as braille printers and screen readers are expensive, linguistically limited, and inadequate for higher education, leaving many students confined to low-skilled employment.

The EyeSight glasses use an AI engine powered by transformer models and computer vision algorithms, including YOLOv11 and large vision-language models (GPT-4o, PaliGemma), to provide intelligent scene descriptions, text reading, object recognition, and directional haptic feedback. The system supports Indian vernacular languages, operates in low-network environments, and functions as a lightweight, low-cost device priced below $15. By combining affordable technology with advanced AI, EyeSight empowers visually impaired students to independently access advanced learning materials and equal educational opportunities.

Prasanna co-designed the product with input from visually impaired students and NGOs, ensuring it meets real-world needs. He also launched Vision 2025, a TED-style platform that brings together policymakers, NGOs, students, and technology entrepreneurs to accelerate the adoption of assistive technologies, with its inaugural edition in June 2025 attended by around 150 stakeholders.

EyeSight is currently in its advanced prototype stages: it supports textbook reading, explanation of scientific concepts, and basic navigation. Early tests demonstrate its effectiveness and usability, with the potential to enable thousands of visually impaired students across rural India to complete high school and pursue higher education.