MIT Develops GPS Cane For The Blind

November 26. 2009

In a technologically caring and savvy move, MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has developed a GPS cane for the blind called BlindAid. Brilliant!

It's great to read about scientists creating positive innovations to help society. It's better than spending money on war and bombs. On another note, don't you just love their architecture:

MIT develops BlindAid, robotic digital cane for the blind

Nov 24, 2009 - Google Maps and other GPS navigation devices might be great advances to most people, but for the legally blind, they're of little help.

Researchers in MIT's Touch Lab have developed BlindAid, a system that helps the visually impaired "feel" their way around a virtual model of a room or building so they can familiarize themselves with an environment before entering it.

The BlindAid system builds on a device called the Phantom, developed at MIT in the early 1990s and built for production by SensAble Technologies. Phantom is effectively a robotic arm that the user grasps like a stylus which can create the sensation of touch by exerting small, precisely controlled force on the user's fingers.

Flash forward to BlindAid. The BlindAid stylus functions like a blind person's cane, allowing the user to "feel" virtual floors, walls, doors and other objects. The stylus is hooked up to a computer programmed with a three-dimensional map of the room. When a virtual obstacle is encountered, the stylus produces force against the user's hand...

http://www.smartplanet.com