Car for the Blind
- Tuesday, July 28, 2009, 3:16
- General Science
- 15 comments
Being blind doesn’t mean to be totally dependent for public transportation forever. The sight impaired persons has now a chance of driving a vehicle on their own.
A team of Engineering undergrads of Virginia Tech College, headed by their professor, have designed a vehicle that does not require sight. They have retrofitted a four-wheel dune buggy that utilizes laser range finders, voice command software and other sensory system that will aid blind drivers to navigate.
Under Dennis Hong, a mechanical engineering and robotics professor, and the rest of his 9 undergrads have designed and constructed the car. This, to answer the challenge from the National Federation of the Blind’s Jernigan Institute.
The team designed a multi-sensory interface that scans obstacles in the environment and direct the driver through non-visual cues. A part of the technology that powers autonomous vehicles. Example, a vest worn by the driver that vibrates in one side when needs to slow down and vibrates entirely when needed to come to a full stop.
Laser range finders, connected to the steering wheel, will determine the vehicle’s distance from the road edge and other objects. A voice prompts the driver to turn the wheel by indicating the number of clicks. One click corresponds to a 5-degree turn.
The design is intended for the blind. But, Hong Said, the application could extend to the entire population. One that he sighted is, the non-visual cues could serve as an advance warning to drivers with sight to encourage safe driving.
With this innovation, public perceptions to blind will be changed, that, the blind’s hope is an impossibility. In the future, when this such technology progress Laws will be change either.
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