Nachi Rosen and Judah Roberts
Katz Yeshiva High School - Boca Raton, FL

Product Description

We have created a device to assist the visually impaired when they are walking so that they do not hit any objects in their path. The device is called 'The Torch' and is a headband that can be worn on the head or over a hat. It sends out a signal to measure how far an object is and beeps when an item is five feet away. The headband beep progressively faster as you get closer to the object. In this way it is able to assist a blind or visually impaired person as they are walking and warn them audibly so that they won't bump into an object.

The Problem

Many blind or visually impaired people use walking dogs or sticks to assist them in knowing when an object is in their path when they're walking. Neither of these devices are very effective in measuring how far an item is away from them or whether the item will hit their head (like a branch, sign, pipe etc.). We created a device that will detect such obstacles and help them maneuver around them. We named our product 'The Torch' because just like a torch of light provides light in the darkness, our device provides clarity to the visually impaired by informing them when there is an obstruction in their walking path.

Background and Market Research

What products are there currently to help the blind?

There are currently three main methods for blind people to detect and find their way, a service dog, a walking cane and visual aid sunglasses. [1] The sunglasses that are similar to our product, however the price is unnecessarily cost prohibitive. Our prototype is economical and affordable to produce.

How many people need this? Why do they need this?

According to the national institute of health (NIH), approximately 3.6 million people are visually impaired for 100% blindness [3]. This number does not include the number of people who are partially or mostly blind which is an astronomical 14 million with the number of people with this disability expected to grow [2]. Many blind people have visual aid tools, but the tools are not sophisticated and don't fit their every need or reduce their head injuries.

Whats the user experience? How does a blind person feel about our product?

We were unable to find any blind people to test out our product, however, we did blindfold and test our product with family members and friends. Part of our future work would be to collaborate with the Institute of the Blind or some other institution. Some of the feedback we received concerned the volume of the beep and the size and clunkiness of the prototype so it would be more compact.

Construction and Testing

Our prototype was constructed by attaching an ultrasonic range detector and two sound buzzers to an Arduino logic board. When the sensor detects an object away that is five feet or less, the buzzers are activated. The sound buzzers are located near both ears and volume adjusted not to be too loud for the user.



Watch the video below to get a 360 degree view of the device,
complete with the Arduino board, buzzers and range detector.

Circuit and Dataflow Diagram

Discussion

Limitations:
'The Torch' is not able to inform the user of anything behind them, what size the object is or even give an audible description of what lies ahead. It is not waterproof and has no adjustment features (one size fits all) - the sound and volume cannot be adjusted and neither can the speed of the beeps. 'The Torch' could be made more accurate if we invest more time and money into it, however, it is a good enough given the technology we were permitted to work with.

Difficulties:
Some of difficulties we encountered were (1) the speed and sound of the sensor we had many discussions about what the best volume or speed should be. (2) Figuring out if the tech or the code was faulty. Only after running unit testing could it be determined.

What we learnt:
We learnt many things when building our prototype and we enjoyed building this visual aid - whether it was soldering wires together or Frankensteining pieces together to the headband. It was beautiful to see our idea come to life! Along with hanging out in the cool Makerspace lab and coding the design, we felt that we lost a few years of our life from frustration. Still, it was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed the experience.

Future Work

Right now, our prototype still has the wires and arduino board visible to the naked eye. In the future, we will want to 3D print a cover to encapsulate the wires and board so that it will be more aesthetically pleasing. Also, if we really wanted to make this device innovative, we would add some artificial intelligence that would be able to determine using geometric AI which object lies in front of them (A chair? A table? A person? Etc.)

References

[1] Tools of the Blind and the Visually Impaired
[2] Visual impairment, blindness cases in U.S. expected to double by 2050
[3] CDC Vision Health Initiative - Fast Facts about Vision Loss

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our parents, our siblings and teachers at KYHS for all their support during our development of this project.