Erich Manser will run the marathon using Aira as a guide. The app connects to a camera on his glasses. Sun / Chris LisinskiSun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.
LITTLETON -- The Boston Marathon is no new feat to Erich Manser.
The legally blind Littleton resident has participated in seven of them -- and 17 marathons overall -- usually using a sighted guide running alongside to help him navigate the course. But this year, Manser will begin exploring a new strategy: technology.
While he runs Boston, a camera attached to his glasses will send a live video feed to an employee of Aira, who will in turn relay in-the-moment audio directions to Manser.
"I know it's a term that's heavily used these days, but it's a game-changer, I think," he said.
Manser, a 44-year-old IBM employee, was diagnosed with a degenerative eye disease called retinis pigmentosa when he was 5.
Littleton's Erich Manser, left, who is legally blind, and his guide David Wei train ahead of Monday's Boston Marathon. See video at lowellsun.com. SUN / Chris LisinskiSun staff photos can be ordered by visiting our SmugMug site.
Since then, his eyesight has been getting worse and worse, and today he is considered legally blind."My path to blindness has been very gradual," he said. "What I have remaining I describe as if you were looking through a drinking straw that was covered with wax paper -- kind of a small circle of straight-ahead vision, and then even that is kind of dulled out or hazy."
For his recent marathons and triathlons, including a 2015 Ironman competition in which he set the world record for a physically challenged athlete, Manser has relied on a guide. Another person would race next to him, offering verbal instructions, and the two would hold onto a bungee cord to connect them.
Manser said with Aira, he hopes to begin paving the road to give blind or visually impaired runners more options. The setup uses glasses-mounted Google Glass as the camera, and through a partnership with AT&T, the Aira app transmits live video and GPS data of Manser's surroundings to one of its representatives located somewhere else in the country.
"I can see everything streaming from his Google Glass," said Jessica Jakeway, an Aira agent who helps Manser on his runs. "That will come up on my screen, and I also have an aerial map, so I can see his location from his phone. He normally knows where he is, but I'll let him know when we're coming up on a certain road and what that road is, and I use the actual video to keep an eye out on upcoming cars and such."
The company was founded two years ago, and has roughly 20 employees and several more contractors.
Clients sign up for memberships, and they can call in to the service for, say, help navigating stores, matching clothes, or finding a restaurant, Jakeway said. And although a few clients have used the company for light athletic activity, she expects Monday to be an entirely new experience.
"This is definitely new territory," she said. "It will be unique to do it in such a serious matter and a competitive setting."
Manser has done several runs around his neighborhood using only Aira as a guide. In the marathon, however, his colleague David Wei will serve as a visual guide -- a "completely selfless" role, Manser said -- as an added level of safety.
After all, a winding race field with more than 30,000 runners is a more challenging setting than a quiet Littleton road.
"In Boston, it's going to be fast-moving and there are going to be people jockeying for position and jumping suddenly in front of me," he said.
For Manser, who works with accessibility technologies at IBM, the marathon represents an exciting opportunity to help advance a new tool that could help a wide range of those with sight impairments.
"In really challenging conditions, we'll be able to bring back some really useful feedback," he said.
Follow Chris Lisinski on Twitter @ChrisLisinski.
Source: Blind Littleton runner taking on Boston with camera-app guidance (VIDEO)
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