[Electronics-talk] Description of the Miniguide

[Sarah Clark]

Hello,

I posted a description of the Miniguide as a response to my origional message, but I fear it may have gotten lost in all the extraneous replies that ensued, so I'm reposting the description in a separate message.

The Miniguide is a device that uses vibrations (and/or audio cues) to help you to detect items you might need to find. For instance, it can help you find mailboxes, trash cans, doorways, when the person ahead of you in line moves forward, etc etc. You can also use it simply to count landmarks, such as the number of trees, poles, etc, until you have to turn right or left. The closer you are to the object in its beam, the faster the vibrations are. (Or in the case of the audio cues, the pitch of the tone gets higher or lower depending on the distance of the object.). This can be helpful either with a cane where you are kind of limited by the length of the cane, or with a guide dog who is ordinarily trained to keep you away from obstacles.

There used to be a similar product back in the 70's and 80's called the Mowat Sensor. My husband had one and he has told me all about it. Unfortunately it hasn't been manufactured in years, but the Miniguide is pretty much the same thing, and from what I understand of it, its an amazing little device that would be extremely beneficial to me.

Sarah