Source Science Alert
Original David Nield
Translated by Dong Yuheng
Edited by Wei Xiao
For many visually impaired people, the blind cane is a necessary aid for daily travel. To this day, however, no one has loaded the new technology on the blind cane and brought us an affordable upgrade. Recently, there is a research team that wants to change this situation.
The research team used many of the technologies of self-driving cars to develop an autonomous navigation smart blind cane. It recognizes the obstacles around it and autonomously drives the user to safely avoid them.
In tests, the new smart blind canister increased the walking speed of subjects with visual impairments by 18%. For about 250 million visually impaired people worldwide, this technology will bring a series of improvements to their quality of life.
"We don't want to just put sensors on ordinary blind canes, it should be more user-friendly." Patrick Slade, a mechanical engineer at Stanford University in the United States, said, "It not only tells you that something is in your way, but it also helps you avoid obstacles." ”
This smart blind stick is highly dependent on Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), which uses laser reflections to locate objects and make ranging. It also has built-in sensors commonly found in smartphones: GPS, accelerometers, magnetometers, and gyroscopes. These sensor groups monitor the user's position, speed, and direction of travel in real time.
On the software side, the blind stick uses a range of artificial intelligence algorithms, including simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM). This is a way to build a map of unknown areas and simultaneously locate the user's location in it.
At the end of the blind cane, an omnidirectional wheel powered by an electric motor can lead the user in a specific direction, or even to a specific destination, such as a coffee shop (like navigation on a smartphone or car).
"We want the users themselves to have control, and we'll just give them the right amount of guidance to get where they want to go as safely and efficiently as possible." Mykel Kochenderfer, a computer scientist also from Stanford University, puts it this way.
This isn't the first time someone has loaded new technology on a blind cane, but existing finished products are heavy and expensive. Not only is the new blind cane lightweight, but the price can be controlled within a few hundred dollars, less than one-tenth of the price of many existing smart blind canes.
This blind cane was developed with the help of many visually impaired people. In Slade's words, they provided "great feedback." Many of the design and navigation improvements were based on feedback from those who actually used the device.
For now, though, it's just a research prototype. The research team has open sourced their designs in its entirety, and anyone with the relevant knowledge and materials (about $400, or about 2,500 yuan) can make their own smart blind cane and participate in its development.
"We wanted to further optimize the project to make it more affordable and easy to copy," says Kochenderfer, "and anyone can download our code, bill of materials, and electronic drawings, all for free."
The paper has been published in Science Robotics.
https://www.sciencealert.com/this-400-cane-uses-autonomous-vehicle-tech-to-help-guide-the-visually-impaired
Thesis information
【标题】Multimodal sensing and intuitive steering assistance improve navigation and mobility for people with impaired vision
【作者】Patrick Slade, Arjun Tambe and Mykel J. Kochenderfer
Science Robotics
Date: 13 October 2021
【DOI】doi.org/10.1126/scirobotics.abg6594
Link: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.abg6594
【摘要】Globally, more than 250 million people have impaired vision and face challenges navigating outside their homes, affecting their independence, mental health, and physical health. Navigating unfamiliar routes is challenging for people with impaired vision because it may require avoiding obstacles, recognizing objects, and wayfinding indoors and outdoors. Existing approaches such as white canes, guide dogs, and electronic travel aids only tackle some of these challenges. Here, we present the Augmented Cane, a white cane with a comprehensive set of sensors and an intuitive feedback method to steer the user, which addresses navigation challenges and improves mobility for people with impaired vision. We compared the Augmented Cane with a white cane by having sighted and visually impaired participants complete navigation challenges while blindfolded: walking along hallways, avoiding obstacles, and following outdoor waypoints. Across all experiments, the Augmented Cane increased the walking speed for participants with impaired vision by 18 ± 7% and sighted participants by 35 ± 12% compared with a white cane. The increase in walking speed may be due to accurate steering assistance, reduced cognitive load, fewer contacts with the environment, and higher participant confidence. We also demonstrate advanced navigation capabilities of the Augmented Cane: indoor wayfinding, recognizing and steering the participant to a key object, and navigating a sequence of indoor and outdoor challenges. The open-source and low-cost design of the Augmented Cane provides a platform that may improve the mobility and quality of life of people with impaired vision.
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