Students build sonar based watch for helping the blind to navigate

When a biologist who studies bats and a computer scientist cross paths, amazingly cool things can happen. Cool things such as a sonar device to assist the visually impaired.

(c) Wake Forest Univ

The idea came from biology professor William Conner of Wake Forest University in the US, who for decades has been studying echolocation in bats and moths to learn more about the evolution of animal communication. Conner, who also is the David and Lelia Farr Professor of Innovation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship, teaches a class called “Bio-inspiration and Biomimetics,” which looks at how animals and plants can inspire the design of new technologies.

Prof Conner talked with Paul Pauca, an associate professor of computer science, who was immediately interested. A collaborative project was born. The pair assembled an interdisciplinary team of students to figure out how to put Conner’s idea into action.

Student-driven project Jack Janes, a senior computer science major; Dominic Prado, a senior biology major; and Ran Chang, a sophomore computer science major, began brainstorming during the first STEM incubator meeting of the Fall 2014 semester.

The students questioned about how to use this concept in a creative way to help blind people navigate better. They eventually focused on developing a device that could be worn like a watch by a visually-impaired person as a supplement to other aids like a cane or dog. Ultimately, they decided on the watch because of it’s small profile and dimensions. Prado, one of the students, came up with a clever name for it: HELP, the Human Echo Location Partner.

How does it work?

(c) Wake Forest Univ

The prototype is made up of several components. It is powered by an Arduino Lilypad microprocessor, runs JAVA-like code written by Janes, and is combined with the sonar distance sensors and two cellphone vibrating motors. It measures the distance of objects and provides feedback via vibrations to the user. The frequency of vibrations is proportional to the distance from the detected object, allowing the user to accurately discern an obstacle’s proximity; they get faster as it draws near.

To test their device, the team turned to sophomore Kathryn Webster, a blind student who navigates campus with her guide dog, Enzo.  One of Webster’s difficulties on campus is dealing with whether doors into buildings or classrooms are open or closed. She tested the device without Enzo and found that it vibrated as she approached a closed door and stopped when it was opened.

What’s Next? 

Next steps include fine-tuning the device to make it smaller and more aesthetically pleasing. And they want to keep it affordable – all of their parts and materials cost less than $60. They are also trying to figure out ways to minimize the amount of power it uses because they would like to make it run off a watch battery.

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