Romanian deep-tech company .lumen has won the CTA Foundation Pitch Competition for Accessibility at CES 2026, receiving an award of USD 10,000, the company announced.

The award recognizes lumen's glasses for the blind, an AI-powered wearable that applies self-driving technology to the pedestrian world. Using real-time computer vision, spatial perception, and on-device AI, the system understands 3D space without relying on internet connectivity or pre-mapped environments, guiding users through a patented haptic interface.

The CTA Foundation Pitch Competition brings together a group of startups exclusively from the accessibility space, showcasing technologies designed to deliver measurable impact for people with disabilities. 

Besides this, the company has also been named a CES 2026 Innovation Award Honoree, and last year it won the US Army Pitch prize, worth another USD 10,000.

"I was born into a family where everyone except me had a disability. Years later, the technology we're building is recognized here, on the CES stage, as the most innovative in its field. Feels like a full circle," said Cornel Amariei, the founder & CEO of .lumen.

.lumen is currently launching in Europe, with its first deployments supported by a public assistive program in Romania, and plans to expand internationally.

.lumen is a Romanian deep-tech company building Pedestrian Autonomous Driving AI (PAD AI). First showcased through the .lumen Glasses for the Blind, PAD has applications in humanoid robots, quadruped robots, and pedestrian delivery systems.

This October, .lumen has secured a grant to repurpose its technology for humanoid robots performing deliveries. In December, it secured another investment from EIT Urban Mobility.

(Photo: Thomas Delacollette, European Innovation Council)

simona@romania-insider.com