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This product, described in a 3/25 Tribune article, meets a need I'm
sure never occurred to most of us. Perhaps those with poor hearing
would benefit more. What do people thing?<br>
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Cordially,<br>
Bill<br>
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<td>Article from Chicago Tribune Business Section 2016 03 25</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Date: </th>
<td>Sat, 26 Mar 2016 00:37:52 -0400 (EDT)</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">From: </th>
<td>NFB-NEWSLINE Online <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:nfbnewsline@nfb.org"><nfbnewsline@nfb.org></a></td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">To: </th>
<td>William B. Reif <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:billreif@ameritech.net"><billreif@ameritech.net></a></td>
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<br>
<br>
Spider-Man-inspired jacket inventor wants to help visually
impaired move. By Ally Marotti, Blue Sky Innovation. The
vibrations are gentle at first, like a text coming through to a
pocketed phone. But the intensity increases -- almost like the
hair rising on the back of your neck when someone's following you.
. Actually, it's exactly like that, said Victor Mateevitsi,
inventor of a jacket that vibrates if something -- or someone --
is close. His SpiderSense jacket, filled with sensors and inspired
by Spider-Man, has been featured on the Science Channel's
"All-American Makers. Mateevitsi, a doctoral student at the
University of Illinois at Chicago, is scheduled to pitch at
Technori's maker-themed showcase on Tuesday. He said the
SpiderSense jacket could help prevent injury among people with
visual impairments, or help firefighters find openings in a
smoke-filled building with low visibility. "It allows you to feel
the environment around you. It scans for people or objects, and it
vibrates," he said. "The vibrations increase as you get closer to
the object. ... If someone is following me, I can feel them. The
jacket has 12 sensors: one on each shoulder, one on each wrist,
and two on the chest, abs, upper back and lower back. The varied
placement lets the wearer distinguish the size of a nearby object.
If all the sensors are vibrating, it might be a person or a wall.
If just the upper sensors are vibrating, it could be a hanging
object -- and the wearer might need to duck. "If you're not
feeling anything, you know it's clear and you can walk safely,"
Mateevitsi said. The project was born out of Mateevitsi's research
at UIC on human augmentation, or the idea that someone's senses
can be enhanced. He wanted to know how the vibrations would change
people's situational awareness and to collect data on whether
wearers would eventually develop somewhat of a sixth sense. His
adviser, Andrew Johnson, pointed to eyeglasses as an example of an
early augmented device. "It's something that's so ingrained in our
lives it doesn't look odd to see someone walking down the street
with eyeglasses," said Johnson, the director of research at UIC's
Electronic Visualization Laboratory. "That's the angle we're
trying to take with this. ... What we're trying to focus on is not
so much trying to regain an ability, but how can we add something.
Mateevitsi is working with the Chicago Lighthouse, a nonprofit
providing rehabilitation services for people with visual
impairments, on improving SpiderSense. Tom Perski, senior vice
president of rehabilitation services at Lighthouse, said the
jacket could be especially beneficial to people with tunnel vision
or other partial vision impairments. "It really is not going to
replace a cane or the guide dog," he said. "But it is going to
give people ... a certain dimension and feedback they can't
currently get in any other way. SpiderSense is still in its
prototyping phase. Right now there's only one, and it's actually
just a branded jacket with the logo removed, concealing a tangle
of wires that connect the sensors and motors. That's a big
improvement on the first version -- a set of sensors that took
about 20 minutes to put on and, with wires extruding every which
way, wasn't exactly discreet. Now Mateevitsi's on the verge of
graduating, and he's ready to attempt to turn SpiderSense into a
scalable business. He's talking to investors and still has a few
problems to solve with the jacket -- like how to hide the sensors
and get rid of the wires. Although Marvel has been using the term
"Spider Sense" since Spider-Man debuted in the 1960s, Mateevitsi
is hoping to stick with that name for the jacket. He hasn't
reached out to the comics company yet. Marvel has trademarked the
phrase "Spider Sense Spider-Man," according to the Library of
Congress' website. Marvel representatives did not respond to
requests for comment. As Mateevitsi works to get the jacket to
market, he's been operating out of West Loop-based coworking space
Catalyze since December. He says he's getting closer to making the
product commercially available, and hopes the finished product can
cost less than $1,000. "Now is the right time," he said. "We have
reached a point where we can make these things cheaply. We're
going to start seeing more and more things embedded into
clothing." ---------- <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:amarotti@tribpub.com">amarotti@tribpub.com</a> Twitter @allymarotti
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:bluesky@tribpub.com">bluesky@tribpub.com</a> Blue Sky is Chicago's gathering place for
news, analysis and events related to innovation and
entrepreneurship. Contact the Blue Sky staff at the address above
or editor Andrea Hanis at <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:ahanis@tribpub.com">ahanis@tribpub.com</a> <br>
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