Engineering students and lecturers at Naresuan University in Phitsanulok have invented a prototype jacket and wrist-mounted smartphone with sensors to help visually impaired people better avoid obstacles and move around more safely.
The nuVision jacket prototype is based on depth information acquired from a Kinect motion senor. It alerts a user with haptic tactile feedback on the user's back. The wearer can tell the position and distance of an obstacle by the location and intensity of the vibration from a tactile feedback unit attached to a backpack. The processing unit is a laptop computer placed in the backpack.
A student tests the jacket-mounted detection system at Naresuan University. (Naresuan University photo)
The wrist-mounted nuVision Armband uses a smartphone, its accelerometer and an attached ultrasonic sensor. The device has two detection modes. The ground level mode detects obstacles (both bumps and holes) on the ground based on distance from the ultrasonic sensor and the angle of the user's arm from the accelerometer. The above-ground level mode relies solely on information from the ultrasonic sensor.
When an obstacle is found, the device alerts the user with both audio and haptic tactile feedback via the smartphone.
Experimental results tested on blindfolded, sighted individuals showed that using the prototype devices with a white cane increased efficiency in avoiding obstacles and that the system was easy to learn, said Rattapoom Waranusast, a lecturer at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of Naresuan University.
"There are about 170,000 visually impaired people in Thailand," he said on Friday. "Their major problem is travel. Generally they use white canes which detect obstacles only one metre ahead and cannot be used to detect high obstacles such as branches and boards."
Students and lecturers at the department are now preparing to downsize the devices to make everyday use more convenient and practical, and they will seek patents for the inventions, Mr Rattapoom said.
An illustration shows how the nuVision components can be worn and used. (Naresuan University graphic)