Build
Apps, tools, prototypes, and experiments designed to solve practical problems.
A public laboratory
Open
Independence
Building technology that expands independence.
Open Independence explores how technology, media, accessibility, and thoughtful design can give people more choices — and help them live life on their own terms.
Our definition
Independence is the freedom to live the life you choose, to the fullest extent possible, on your own terms.
It does not require doing everything alone. It means having meaningful choices, useful tools, appropriate support, and the autonomy to decide what works for you.
What we do
Four ways in
Everything here fits somewhere in this shape. Some pieces move between categories over time.
Learn
Accessibility insights, technology reviews, independent-living ideas, and lessons from the development process.
Live
Practical discussions about autonomy, support, employment, communication, daily life, and personal choice.
Imagine
New possibilities for AI, assistive technology, media, interfaces, and the future of independent living.
Featured apps
Real tools, built to expand independence.
Three shipping apps from the Open Independence lab. Each one explores a different way technology can hand more choice back to the person using it.
- Artificial IntelligenceReleased
AiVi — See & Speak
An AI visual interpreter that discusses what your camera sees in real time. Point your camera at anything and have a live, voice-driven conversation about it, with customizable AI agents, spatial audio voice commands, and task-specific focus modes. Also available as a downloadable Mac app.
Open live app - CommunicationReleased
Kaidence — Speak Genius
An AI-powered augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app that predicts and speaks text. It learns user patterns to predict what someone wants to say, with a text-only mode and a picture mode that pairs images with words to support diverse communication styles.
Open live app - EducationReleased
TypeRight — Type Together
A gamified educational app that teaches typing skills to users of all abilities, using audio and video to create an engaging, accessible learning experience for diverse learners.
Open live app
Latest from Open Independence
Recent signals
- Idea in motion
AiVi — See & Speak is moving into a real project
An AI visual interpreter you can hold a real conversation with about whatever your camera is pointing at. Now a shipping project.
- Project update
TypeRight — Type Together — release
A gamified educational app that teaches typing skills to users of all abilities, using audio and video to create an engaging, accessible learning experience for diverse learners.
- Project update
Kaidence — Speak Genius — release
An AI-powered augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app that predicts and speaks text. It learns user patterns to predict what someone wants to say, with a text-only mode and a picture mode that pairs images with words to support diverse communication styles.
- Project update
AiVi — See & Speak — release
An AI visual interpreter that discusses what your camera sees in real time. Point your camera at anything and have a live, voice-driven conversation about it, with customizable AI agents, spatial audio voice commands, and task-specific focus modes. Also available as a downloadable Mac app.
- Article
What should an AI vision assistant remember?
Thinking out loud about the difference between memory, context, and surveillance in camera-based assistants.
- Article
Technology should create choices, not assumptions
Notes on the difference between products that anticipate a person and products that decide for them.
Share an idea
What makes independence harder than it should be?
The Ideas board is where new app ideas live — mine, and ones sent in by visitors. Some become real projects.
Browse the board, or add an idea of your own.
Follow the Experiment
Occasional signals from the lab.
Receive occasional project releases, new ideas, and lessons from the Open Independence lab. No frequent sends, no tracking pixels.
Technology should adapt to people — not require people to adapt to it.