[Mdpobc] FW: [Nfbnet-master-list] Blind Man Drives Car Independently

[Trudy Pickrel]

Hope all have enjoyed the many updates on The Blind Driver Challenge
 
Thank you NFB for the many things you have done for our children. And for the amazing and successful future they will have thanks to wonderful advocating parents and the NFB.

Trudy L. Pickrel
President MD Parents of Blind Children
301-387-4182
301-501-1818
www.tlcbythelake.weebly.com




There is a Braille literacy crisis in America.
 
only 10% blind Children being taught Braille
 
You can be part of the solution.
 
Buy a Louis Braille Commemorative coin at www.nfb.org


 

> Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2011 11:48:35 -0600
> To: nfbnet-master-list at nfbnet.org
> From: JFreeh at nfb.org
> Subject: [Nfbnet-master-list] Blind Man Drives Car Independently
> 
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
> 
> CONTACT:
> John G. Paré Jr.
> Executive Director for Strategic Initiatives
> National Federation of the Blind
> (410) 659-9314, extension 2218
> (410) 917-1965 (Cell)
> jpare at nfb.org
> 
> Blind Man Drives Car Independently
> 
> Avoids Dynamic Obstacles
> 
> Baltimore, Maryland (January 29, 2011): The 
> National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the 
> oldest and largest organization of blind people 
> in the nation, announced today that for the first 
> time a blind individual has driven a street 
> vehicle in public without the assistance of a 
> sighted person. Mark Anthony Riccobono, a blind 
> executive who directs technology, research, and 
> education programs for the organization, was 
> behind the wheel of a Ford Escape hybrid equipped 
> with nonvisual technology and successfully 
> navigated 1.5 miles of the road course section of 
> the famed track at the Daytona International Speedway.
> 
> The historic demonstration was part of pre-race 
> activities leading up to the Rolex 24 At Daytona 
> this morning. Mr. Riccobono not only 
> successfully navigated the several turns of the 
> road course but also avoided obstacles, some of 
> which were stationary and some of which were 
> thrown into his path at random from a van driving 
> in front of him. Later he successfully passed 
> the van without collision. The Ford Escape was 
> equipped with laser range-finding censors that 
> conveyed information to a computer inside the 
> vehicle, allowing it to create and constantly 
> update a three-dimensional map of the road 
> environment. The computer sent directions to 
> vibrating gloves on the driver’s hands, 
> indicating which way to steer, and to a vibrating 
> strip on which he was seated, indicating when to speed up, slow down, or stop.
> 
> Mr. Riccobono said: “The NFB’s leadership in the 
> Blind Driver Challenge™ has taken something 
> almost everyone believed was an impossible dream 
> and turned it into reality. It was thrilling for 
> me to be behind the wheel, but even more 
> thrilling to hear the cheers from my blind 
> brothers and sisters in the grandstands*—today 
> all of the members of the NFB helped drive us 
> forward*. It is for them and for all blind 
> Americans that the National Federation of the 
> Blind undertook this project to show that blind 
> people can do anything that our sighted friends 
> and colleagues can do as long as we have access 
> to information through nonvisual means. Today we 
> have demonstrated that truth to the nation and the world.”
> 
> Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National 
> Federation of the Blind, said: “Just as our 
> colleague Mark Riccobono successfully surmounted 
> many obstacles on the Daytona course today, blind 
> people routinely surmount barriers by using 
> alternative techniques and technologies. When 
> there is not a solution available, we muster our 
> resources and combine them with those of the 
> partners who make common cause with us to produce 
> the innovations necessary to create such a 
> solution. That is how the NFB Blind Driver 
> Challenge™ came to happen, and that is how we 
> will make all of our dreams come true.”
> 
> The NFB Blind Driver Challenge™ is a research 
> project of the National Federation of the Blind 
> Jernigan Institute—the only research and training 
> facility on blindness operated by the blind. The 
> Jernigan Institute challenged universities, 
> technology developers, and other interested 
> innovators to establish NFB Blind Driver 
> Challenge™ (BDC) teams, in collaboration with the 
> NFB, to build interface technologies that will 
> empower blind people to drive a car 
> independently. The purpose of the NFB Blind 
> Driver Challenge™ is to stimulate the development 
> of nonvisual interface technology. The Virginia 
> Tech/TORC NFB BDC team, under the direction of 
> Dr. Dennis Hong, director of the Robotics and 
> Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech., is the 
> only team that has accepted the challenge. The 
> team uses the ByWire XGV™ developed by TORC 
> technologies as the research platform for the 
> development and testing of the nonvisual 
> interface technologies that allow a blind person to drive.
> 
> For more information about the NFB, please visit 
> www.nfb.org. For our digital news release about 
> the Blind Driver Challenge™ and the debut of the 
> BDC car at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, including 
> audio and video clips for television and radio, 
> please visit www.DigitalNewsRelease.com/?q=NFB_CarKit.
> 
> ###
> 
> 
> About the National Federation of the Blind
> 
> With more than 50,000 members, the National 
> Federation of the Blind is the largest and most 
> influential membership organization of blind 
> people in the United States. The NFB improves 
> blind people’s lives through advocacy, education, 
> research, technology, and programs encouraging 
> independence and self-confidence. It is the 
> leading force in the blindness field today and 
> the voice of the nation's blind. In January 2004 
> the NFB opened the National Federation of the 
> Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and 
> training center in the United States for the blind led by
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Nfbnet-master-list mailing list
> Nfbnet-master-list at nfbnet.org
 		 	   		  
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