App uses HoloLens's depth sensors for sophisticated sonar to aid the blind

It turns out you don’t have to be able to see to find Microsoft’s HoloLens useful.

HoloLens developer Javier Davalos has created an app called White Cane” which allows people with no vision to see surfaces around them with special sound tones.

The app uses the HoloLens’s depth sensors to scan the surfaces around the users, and then converts information such as distance, orientation, inclination and direction into different tones into each ear of the user, providing a wealth of information about the environment of the user.

The app also responds to voice commands, and the potential otherwise seems endless, such as using the built-in cameras to visually identify and describe specific objects.

Davalos hopes to publish the app in the store soon to let others who have access to a HoloLens try out the concept.