Inventor of a sensory band that gives autonomy to the visually impaired wins Ingenias LATAM 2025 for Chile

Silvana Herrera Leiva, product designer and inventor of a sensory band for the detection of obstacles in the visual field, was announced as the Chilean winner of the Ingenias LATAM 2025 award for her nationally and internationally protected invention to assist visually impaired people. The award is an initiative of the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), in the framework of the EU-funded AL-INVEST Verde DPI project. Its objective is to make visible and promote female talent at in the field of intellectual property (IP) and innovation in Latin America. The award ceremony took place on 4 September at the headquarters of the Chilean National Institute of Industrial Property (INAPI) in Santiago de Chile, co-organiser and host of this first edition of the award focused on women inventors with inventions protected by IP rights.

From the time Silvana began her academic training, she knew she wanted to dedicate herself to researching solutions to improve the daily lives of people with disabilities. This perspective led her to create MOV - for ‘movement’, a sensory band-type device worn on the head as a headband, which allows visually impaired people to leave their hands and arms free when moving around. MOV works by taking advantage of echolocation, capturing the small vibrations emitted by objects through laser sensors, and allowing to pinpoint their location with vibratory pulses in the area of the mastoid bone behind the ears and the occipital bone, to create a mental map.

Her training as a product designer was key not only to the device's functionality, but also to its aesthetics: she researched how visually impaired people experience beauty, discovering that soft, organic shapes generate positive sensations for them. Thus, he developed a lightweight, ergonomic and emotionally friendly sensory band, adapted to the needs of visually impaired people. The device is protected by several intellectual property rights (IPR) in Chile, Europe and other jurisdictions, including patents, trademarks and industrial designs, in a robust IPR portfolio that Silvana shares with the University of Talca, which accompanied the technological development of the project.

"The project that gave birth to the device started as a technical work, but ended up being a social mission. One of the most impactful moments in the process of validating prototypes was the experience of a visually impaired user who, for the first time, was able to walk without a cane and with his hands free, allowing him to hold his daughter's hand while they went to the supermarket," Silvana said. This kind of human impact reflects the true scope of her innovation. At just 38 years old, Silvana is the youngest winner of Ingenias LATAM 2025, and has previously been honoured with awards in the early entrepreneurship category for her leadership as a young woman in science and technology.