[Promotion-technology] FYI - Improving the white cane (ScienceAlert)

[Jeanine Lineback]

Below is an article which was passed on to me by one of my former
students. I thought some of you might find it interesting 

I am not sure what I think about the final results. I have heard
of many, "New cane," ideas over the years and none of them have
proven better than my NFB cane yet. However, this one may have
potential; if the design doesn't detract from the current cane
design in locating objects, if it is practical and reliable to
use, and if it is affordable by the time it hits the market, if
it makes it to market. 

The link for the article is: 

http://pda.sciencealert.com.au/news/20131907-24595.html

Improving the white cane (ScienceAlert)

Improving the white cane

Curtin University 

Friday, 19 July 2013

 

The most reliable navigation tool for people who are blind, the
white cane, is set to be enhanced by a new gadget built by six
Curtin University PhD students.

 

The white cane has been a successful innovation for decades, and
by using special multi-sensor array technology, the Indoor
Navigation Project will enable

people who are blind to sense their surroundings beyond the
cane's tip.

 

Project leader Dr Iain Murray of Curtin's Department of
Electrical and Computing Engineering said the gadget would
resemble a smartphone and would sense

an entire room's features, build a virtual map of it and
communicate this to the user.

 

"A cane is beneficial for going up and down stairs or detecting
if obstacles are right in front of you, but is not capable of
telling you if something

is more than a metre or two away," Dr Murray said.

 

"What we are developing is a multi-sensor device for people who
are blind, who are also often hearing impaired, to tell them what
is exactly around them

from wall to wall."

 

Dr Murray said five students will each take on the development of
one type of sensor, whether it be sensing the change of velocity,
images or noise. The

sixth student will be responsible for pooling the sensors into
one gadget, which will ultimately contribute towards building a
map of the indoor environment

including both moving and non-moving objects.

 

"While many indoor locations already have a map that people who
are blind can use to find their way around, they don't allow for
change and can therefore

be quite dangerous," he said.

 

"For instance, a conference room is forever changing, the chairs
are always set up differently and people will move around. We are
developing a map system

that can adjust for these movements, and then upload this new
data to a network for the next person who is vision impaired to
enter the room and use on

their own device." 

 

The five research projects will develop sensors to do the
following:

 

. Determine the direction and distance a user walks whilst
indoors along with identifying features such as stairs and
inclines.

 

. Extract the edges of paths and obstacles using stereoscopic
cameras, classify what they are, and build a map of the
environment using image processing

techniques.

 

. Pick up audio cues to help locate and track moving objects from
a mobile receiver.

 

. Allow for efficient methods of communicating map and sensor
data across networks, to ensure data is available before a user
collides with an obstacle

(in less than 1/6 of a second)

 

. Enable efficient methods of security and trust within networks,
to eliminate risk of leading the blind into dangerous situations.


 

Once obstacles are identified, a map will be constructed using a
Building Information Modelling system suitable for the vision
impaired, developed in the

sixth research project.

 

Dr Murray said building owners do not need to put in any
infrastructure for this technology, as the sensors discover
everything required for the maps.