A team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has developed a new accessibility tool for visually impaired people in form of a wearable device that helps them navigate the world with a 3D camera, a belt with five vibrational motors, and an electronically reconfigurable Braille interface.
“In a nutshell, our system scans the world and finds the walkable space and obstacles in front of the user with visual impairment,” Robert Katzschmann, mechanical engineering student at MIT, explains.
Receiving information about their environment through the Braille display and vibrations around the abdomen that the device produces, test subjects had 86 percent fewer cane collisions with people in hallways. Testing showed other very promising results and is next taken from indoors to outdoors.
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