For visually impaired sports fans at stadiums around the world, following a match often means relying on commentators or those around them to describe the action. Now, an Irish startup is looking to create a more level playing field.

Dublin-based Field of Vision has produced a handheld, haptic feedback device that it says can help blind and partially sighted fans not just hear, but “feel” the action, enhancing the live experience.

Custom-built cameras positioned in each corner of the stadium use artificial intelligence (AI) to track key details from a match. Within roughly half a second, this information is transmitted to a white, tablet-sized device embossed with the shape of a sports pitch, which weighs under a kilogram and rests on the user’s lap.

A small magnetic ring guides the user’s finger around the tablet – not unlike the movement on a Ouija board – based on where the ball is, and vibrates to convey various match events, such as a tackle or a change in possession.

The device is designed to enhance audio-descriptive commentary as opposed to replacing it entirely, with a built-in headphone jack allowing users to access audio commentary if the stadium provides a feed.

“Game changer”

Deneher launched the business alongside two friends – fellow Trinity College Dublin student Tim Farrelly, and Queen’s University Belfast student Omar Salem – in 2020, as they looked for something to fill their time during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Aerospace engineering graduate Salem first envisioned the idea after seeing social media footage of partially sighted Liverpool supporter Mike Kearny. On the terraces of the English Premier League giant’s Anfield stadium, Kearny’s cousin Stephen Garcia stood next to him and talked him through the action.

With 320,000 people registered blind or partially sighted in the UK alone, according to the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), and an estimated 43 million blind people worldwide, Field of Vision’s technology could potentially improve the live sports experience for a swathe of fans.

Declan Meenagh, a supporter of Dublin football club Bohemians, was born with a genetic eye condition that limits him to 5% vision. Meenagh cannot see beyond the crossbar even if sat in the front row behind the goal at the team’s Dalymount Park stadium.

Club volunteers who describe matches for visually impaired spectators allow him to follow along via an earphone, but he can miss key lines when the crowd gets loud.

He said that a test run with the Field Of Vision tablet added new levels of context to proceedings on the pitch.

“It helps out a lot because you have a two-dimensional understanding of where it (the ball) is on the pitch and how it moves, and you actually feel things move really quickly – it’s really good.”

Kick off

Field of Vision was a runner-up for the James Dyson award – an international student design prize – in 2021, and included on Time’s list of best inventions for 2022. This June, it won Best Initiative to Promote Inclusivity and Physical Activity at the Irish Sport Industry Awards.

The company has raised roughly €250,000 in funding, most of which has come from business accelerator programs, with grants and prize money won from various competitions also injecting cash.

The founders were mentored by sports industry executive Tom Sears, and after the technology had been tested at Bohemian, whose ground has a capacity of under 5,000 spectators, he last year helped arrange early prototype testing at Manchester City’s Etihad Stadium, which can seat more than 50,000 fans. As part of a trial, the device was used by three season ticket holders across seven of the club’s home matches.

It served as the ideal preparation for a full rollout at the roughly 53,000-seater Marvel Stadium, in Melbourne, Australia, which is home to five Australian Rules Football teams – a completely different sport to soccer.

After the 2024 season ended in September, cameras were installed at the stadium and the AI retrained to record match details on the oval shaped pitch. Marvel Stadium will offer 40 devices at every game played there during next year’s Australian Football League (AFL) season.

The capacity of the device to be reprogrammed for a sport wildly different from soccer hints at a future for the business that could expand far beyond the soccer field.

“Long-term we want to expand to all the major sports in the world and to have it so that this is just a standard for stadiums and live venues to have within their infrastructure,” said Deneher.

Field of Vision is currently in the process of selling the product to football teams across Europe’s top five leagues (England, Spain, France, Germany and Italy), and Deneher said that “immediate plans” are also in place to start selling to US markets and expand further in the AFL.

Clubs would pay a yearly subscription for the AI model, cameras and match delivery service and another to annually lease the tablets.

A subscription-based model was chosen over selling the system outright to account for the likely fluctuating number of visually impaired fans each season, as well as to allow devices to be swapped out for potential repairs, Deneher explained.

Prices are still being finalized but will be dependent on the respective demands and stadium sizes of each club. He added that while the technology might be perceived as a luxury at the moment, it could one day become as commonplace as wheelchair ramps.

“We just want football and live sports to be more accessible for everyone,” Deneher said. “So the plan is to expand to more stadiums, more countries, and more sports for the future.”

Sixty-five more women have come forward with abuse allegations against the late billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed, according to the BBC, following the network’s documentary that detailed testimonies of women who said he sexually assaulted and raped them.

The allegations date as far back as 1977, in Dubai – eight years before Al Fayed purchased the high-end London department store Harrods, making him widely known in the United Kingdom.

Among the dozens of women who contacted the BBC with new accounts of abuse, 37 said they had worked at Harrods, the British broadcaster reported.

As part of the BBC investigation published last month, more than 20 female ex-Harrods employees had already accused Al Fayed, who died last year at age 94, of sexually assaulting them. One said she was assaulted when she was 15 and Al Fayed was 79.

Harrods acknowledged that Al Fayed was “intent on abusing his power wherever he operated” and apologized to victims in a statement released at the time. “We are utterly appalled by the allegations of abuse perpetrated by Mohamed Al Fayed,” the company said.

The latest allegations involve a range of abuse tactics, including multiple women who said they were recruited under false pretenses to work at Al Fayed’s private residences as nannies, chefs and maids and then sexually exploited, the BBC reported.

“The job just didn’t exist. He didn’t need a nanny. He didn’t want a nanny,” one woman told the BBC regarding her work at Al Fayed’s mansion in Surrey, England, where she says she was kept against her will and repeatedly sexually assaulted over several days.

In the statement issued last month, Harrods said that “new information came to light” last year about historic allegations of sexual abuse perpetrated by Al Fayed. Since then, it said, “it has been our priority to settle claims in the quickest way possible, avoiding lengthy legal proceedings for the women involved. This process is still available for any current or former Harrods employees.”

The company issued another statement Thursday in relation to the latest allegations, saying: “Since 2023, Harrods settled a number of claims with women who alleged historic sexual misconduct by Fayed. Since the airing of the documentary, so far there are 200+ individuals who are now in the Harrods process to settle claims directly with the business.”

Britain’s Prince and Princess of Wales made a surprise visit to Southport, northwest England, on Thursday, where they met the bereaved families of three children killed in a knife attack in July.

The visit was the first public appearance for Catherine, known as Kate, since she finished her chemotherapy treatment.

Bebe King, 6, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, 9, were fatally stabbed while attending a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the town on July 29.

The royal couple met privately with the families of the three young girls, as well as with their dance teacher who was present during the attack.

William and Kate – who has only carried out a handful of public appearances this year – also met with emergency services personnel who responded to the scene in July, as well as mental health practitioners who have been supporting the “blue light” community in the months since.

“I can’t underestimate how grateful they [the families] all are for the support you provided on the day,” Kate told the responders, according to Britain’s PA Media news agency, during the deeply emotional sit-down. She then thanked the frontline staff on behalf of the families.

Meanwhile, William, the heir to the British throne, told the group that they were “heroes” and urged them to “make sure you look after yourselves.”

“Please take your time, don’t rush back to work,” he added.

Following the unexpected appearance in Southport, William and Kate spoke of their “powerful” visit on social media.

“We continue to stand with everyone in Southport. Meeting the community today has been a powerful reminder of the importance of supporting one another in the wake of unimaginable tragedy. You will remain in our thoughts and prayers,” the couple wrote in a post on X.

At the time of the knife attack, the Waleses released a statement on social media from their perspective as parents. “We cannot begin to imagine what the families, friends and loved ones of those killed and injured in Southport today are going through,” they said in July, before sending their “love, thoughts and prayers” and gratitude to emergency responders.

The pair also made a donation through their royal foundation to a fundraiser set up to provide psychological and physical rehab for police and ambulance personnel involved in the attack and the subsequent riots.

Kate, 42, has been easing her way back into public life following her announcement that she had completed chemotherapy and was cancer free in a video last month. She has not revealed the type of cancer she was being treated for.

The princess said the past nine months had been challenging but that “I am, however, looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months when I can.”

In recent weeks, she has been holding a number of meetings primarily focused on her early years work and her upcoming annual Christmas carol concert.

She also made a private visit to the English National Ballet a few weeks ago for a matinee show, posting about the “moving and inspiring” performance on social media afterwards.

The Wales aren’t the only royals to show their support for the bereaved families and Southport community. King Charles III made a similar visit to the area in August to meet those affected by the attack and thank frontline emergency workers.

This story has been updated.

Concerns are mounting for the safety of United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon amid Israel’s ground incursion, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix warned on Thursday, after Israeli fire resulted in the injury of two UN troops.

Briefing the UN Security Council on Thursday, UN Under-Secretary General for Peace Operations Lacroix described hostilities between Israeli forces and Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in southern Lebanon as “increasingly alarming,” and putting “peacekeepers at serious risk.”

“The safety and security of peacekeepers is now increasingly in jeopardy,” Lacroix said.

The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) reported early Thursday that the peacekeepers were injured after an Israeli tank fired toward an observation tower at its headquarters in the southern Lebanese city Naqoura.

The Israeli tank fire directly hit the tower, causing the peacekeepers to fall, UNIFIL said, adding that other “nearby positions have been repeatedly hit.”

UNFIL said that “any deliberate attack on peacekeepers is a grave violation of international humanitarian law.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have accused Hezbollah of operating in areas near UNIFIL posts, and said in a statement that it had asked UNIFIL forces to “remain in protected spaces” during the incident.

“The IDF is operating in southern Lebanon and maintains routine communication with UNIFIL,” the IDF said in a statement after Thursday’s incident.

“This morning (Thursday), IDF troops operated in the area of Naqoura, next to a UNIFIL base. Accordingly, the IDF instructed the UN forces in the area to remain in protected spaces, following which the forces opened fire in the area,” the statement added.

UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said the two peacekeepers – both Indonesian – were hospitalized. Their injuries are not serious, he said.

UN peacekeepers have been stationed in southern Lebanon since 2006, per a mandate by the United Nations Security Council. UN peacekeepers were drawn from armies of several nations to monitor the situation along the roughly 120-kilometer (74-mile) Blue Line which separates the two states.

The incident came as Israel expands its strikes across Lebanon. On Thursday, Israeli strikes on a densely populated Beirut neighborhood killed at least 22 people and wounded 117, the Lebanese health ministry said.

International outcry

The injury of the UN peacekeepers drew condemnation from several countries including Italy, France, and Ireland, who all have contingents in the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni summoned the Israeli ambassador in Rome on Thursday after what she described as “unacceptable” behavior by the Israeli forces.

Meloni’s office said two Italian bases of UNIFIL were “hit by gunfire from the Israeli army” on Thursday and added that the prime minister spoke to the Commander of the Western Sector of the UNIFIL mission, Gen. Stefano Messina, for an update on the safety of the Italian troops.

The Italian leader also contacted Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to “firmly remind” him that “what is happening near the Italian UNIFIL bases in southern Lebanon” is “unacceptable,” according to an Italian government statement.

Indonesia’s mission to the UN blasted Israel over what it called “deliberate attacks,” saying Friday that Israel’s actions “represent a blatant attempt to spread terror on the ground to intimidate both the peacekeeping mission and international community.”

France also expressed “deep concern” after the attack, saying it was “awaiting explanations from the Israeli authorities.”

“The protection of peacekeepers is an obligation imposed on all parties to a conflict. France calls on the parties to respect this obligation, and to allow UNIFIL to continue to implement its mandate, including by respecting its freedom of movement,” a spokesperson for the French foreign ministry said.

Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin described the IDF’s “targeting & firing on UNIFIL positions” as “reprehensible” and “unacceptable.”

Earlier this week, Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris also expressed concern after Israeli tanks were stationed close to an UN outpost manned by Irish peacekeepers.

The European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell condemned what he called an “inadmissible act,” posting to X: “Another line has been dangerously crossed in Lebanon: IDF shelling of UN peacekeepers whose positions are known. We condemn this inadmissible act, for which there is no justification.”

The EU foreign policy chief reiterated his support for UNIFIL and called for full accountability regarding the incident.

Nobuyo Oyama, the voice of beloved Japanese anime “Doraemon” for a generation of children across Asia, has died at age 90, her agency confirmed on Friday.

Oyama died on September 29 due to old age, according to the Actors 7 agency. It apologized for the delay in its statement, adding: “We would like to express our sincere gratitude for the kindness you extended to the deceased during her lifetime.”

A private funeral attended by relatives was held for Oyama, the agency said.

Oyama was best known for voicing the eponymous character in the “Doraemon” television show, which aired from 1979 through 2005 – just one of three shows in the larger Doraemon franchise, which became globally popular, especially in regional markets like Hong Kong and Vietnam.

The franchise includes dozens of animated films, video games, music albums and manga series.

They follow the adventures of Doraemon, a robotic cat from the 22nd century who arrives in the present day to help a young boy called Nobita “who’s terrible at everything,” according to the franchise’s official website. The friendly-looking blue-and-white character often rescues Nobita by pulling secret gadgets from the future out of the pocket in his stomach.

Oyama was born in Tokyo, according to Japan’s public broadcaster NHK. Before voicing Doraemon, she also played a role in NHK’s puppet show “Boo Foo Woo,” which ran from 1960 to 1967, the broadcaster said.

But it was the animated show that launched her to worldwide fame – so much so that the 1979 show is also known as the “Oyama edition” to distinguish it from other Doraemon adaptations.

The news of Oyama’s death spurred a wave of tributes on social media, with fans from across the world expressing condolences and remembering her as an iconic voice of their childhoods.

“Ms. Nobuyo Ōyama… She was someone who supported me from the very beginning of my career. Thank you so much for all your hard work over the years. I truly appreciate it,” tweeted Kazuhiko Inoue, who voiced fan favorite character Kakashi in the global manga hit “Naruto,” and had parts in other popular series including “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” and “Demon Slayer.”

“When I think of Doraemon, Nobuyo Oyama’s voice plays in my mind,” one user wrote on social platform X. Another wrote: “Doraemon, I’ve loved you ever since I can remember, thanks to Nobuyo Oyama.”

Others expressed grief that Oyama had died so shortly after the death in July of Noriko Ohara, the voice of Nobita.