Navigating your way through an unfamiliar city can be challenging and stressful, especially when you’re visually impaired. This little handheld device from Yale postdoctorate engineer associate Adam Spiers shifts it shape to point you in the right direction so even if you can’t see, you can get accurate directions to your destination.

The current version of Animotus is connected wirelessly to the location sensors on your clothing that work with other sensors mounted on the walls of your surroundings. In the future, it will connect to your smartphone for real-world guidance. It’s a haptic device unlike any other – rather than relying on vibrations like most, you simply hold it in your hand and feel as the top part pivots to lead you.

Other sight-impaired assistive devices rely on sound to help navigate, which can be a problem since cities are generally noisy already and hearing their surroundings is a big part of getting around for visually impaired people. Spiers recently supplied the device for an interactive play based on an 1884 book by Edwin A. Abbott called Flatland. Audience members became participants by holding onto an Animotus which led them, in complete darkness, around the “stage,” which was actually the inside of a church.

Infrared cameras showed the audience members making their way through the set at speeds nearly as fast as walking in a brightly lit space. At the end of the performance, participants liked the navigation devices so much they wanted to keep them. Spiers says the Animotus is a long way from being produced commercially, but he’s encouraged by the positive response so far. He envisions the device as someday being a simple way for both sighted and visually impaired people to navigate without having to constantly pay attention to a smartphone’s directions.

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Navigating an urban landscape is difficult enough, but doing it without the benefit of sight is confusing and can be dangerous. Microsoft teamed up with research group Future Cities Catapult to create a headset that creates a multi-layered soundscape to help those with visual impairments get around. The Cities Unlocked project uses a smartphone and bone conduction sound to provide information about the wearer’s surroundings.

The behind-the-head headset features two small nodes that fit just in front of each ear to transmit sound through the wearer’s bones. This type of sound delivery is more efficient than sounds that travel through the air, and the technology allows the wearer to hear both the headset’s cues and the ambient noises around them.

Each headset is custom made using Microsoft’s Kinect camera. The camera scans the wearer’s head to determine the precise location of the wearer’s ear canals. The nodes are designed to fit in front of the ear canals to bypass the eardrums altogether. This precise positioning allows the headset to create noises that seem to come from a certain direction. If a wearer is headed in the wrong direction, the headset can create a sound coming from the correct direction which cues the wearer to turn that way.

The headset can name nearby landmarks, buildings, and businesses to help the wearer keep their bearings. It is connected to a smartphone via Bluetooth and relies on information from location and navigation services. Before setting out, a wearer can program in a route and the headset will guide them to the location using verbal directions and sound cues.

Part of the project’s vision is to place information beacons in strategic locations throughout urban areas. These beacons would provide valuable information about transportation schedules and other helpful mobility tips.

The initiative is aimed not only at people who are commuting to and from work; it is meant to help tourists and those who are new to a city. Getting around a new city with sight loss is a huge and scary undertaking, but the help provided by the Cities Unlocked project could help visually impaired people attain a whole new level of confidence and independence.

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Modern technology relies mostly on sight, particularly when it comes to touchscreen devices that have no tactile input to let the user know where to touch. A research project at Japan’s University of Electro-Communications could help visually impaired people interact with modern touchscreen technology in a completely new way.

The researchers call their project Hamsa Touch. It uses the camera of a phone coupled with an electro-tactile display that converts the images into tiny tingles of electricity that tell the user what is on the screen. The tingles on the user’s palm give a map of the screen, like braille does for fingertips and text. The strength of the tingles can be raised and lowered to suit the user’s comfort level.

The device is in the prototype stage right now. The prototype uses 512 photo sensors, each associated with its own electrode. To use the Hamsa Touch, it is placed directly on of the touchscreen device to let users “see” the images via the patterns of tingles on their hands. The next step in the process is to test the product with visually impaired people to see how well it works for them and which aspects could use improvement.

(via: PCWorld)

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A camera on a pair of glasses is nothing new on the technological landscape. They’ve been used for surveillance and various consumer needs for years. The OrCam, however, is intended to help the visually challenged.

It attaches to your glasses with a magnet, so it sees what you see. With a mere point of your finger it scans the subject and sends the information to a very powerful computer that fits in your pocket.  It can remember and recognize faces, read words and even watch traffic lights.

The OrCam also uses a bone conduction earpiece, which is vital for delivering the converted text to speech to the wearer, or to describe whatever they point at. If only it would expose secret messages and alien races.

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Assistive devices for the blind have taken great strides forward as technology has gotten smarter and smaller in recent decades. The finger-mounted EyeRing lets users “see” the world around them with a novel voice-activated interface. The 3D printed outer shell houses a tiny camera, a processor, a Bluetooth module and a Li-ion battery.

The EyeRing is connected via BlueTooth to the user’s smartphone. A proprietary Android app is installed on the phone to process the information collected by the camera. By selecting a mode via a voice command, the user can tell the app whether to identify colors, currency, text, or price tag information. Then, it’s as simple as pointing the camera at the object in question and clicking the small button on the side of the device.

The camera takes a picture and sends it to the smartphone, where the app processes it and sends the requested information back to the user via earpiece. Future versions of the EyeRing will include more sensors, more capabilities and an Apple version of the software. While the device is still under development, the team behind it hopes to have a consumer version ready soon for under $100.

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