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HALO For The Visually Impaired

Davide GombaFebruary 23rd, 2011

Happy to discover the HALO project actually won the HUMANA Contest. Check out the other winners. HALO (Haptic Assisted Locating of Obstacles) is a solution for visually impaired people to perceive obstacles around them. Here’s a little description:

I recently watched an episode of Stan Lee’s Superhumans which featured a blind
man who used a series of clicks, like a bat, to echo locate his surroundings. I
got to thinking about other blind people and their ability to navigate freely –
without the use of a guide dog or cane. I came up with the idea to use a series
of rangefinders that would take input from sensors and output feedback to pulse
vibration motors placed on a person’s head. As a person gets closer to an object
the intensity and frequency of the vibration would increase – it’s directly
proportional to the distance of an object. If a region was lacking feedback,
then it would be safe to proceed in that direction.

I call my submission the H.A.L.O. – the Haptic Assisted Locating of Obstacles. I
believe this can serve very useful for the visually impaired to have the freedom
to possibily move about hands-free without the assistance of a cane or seeing
eye dog. Technology has undoubtedly made our daily lives better. By using a few
inexpensive components and sensors, I’ve made a device that will allow the blind
to navigate their surroundings and avoid collisions.

via [Instructables] also seen on [ITnews] [WareGround]

4 Responses to “HALO For The Visually Impaired”

  1. Tweets that mention Arduino Blog » Blog Archive » HALO For The Visually Impaired -- Topsy.com Says:

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by N Oliver and anonbot, arduinoblog. arduinoblog said: HALO For The Visually Impaired http://bit.ly/h6hiwZ […]

  2. “HALO For The Visually Impaired” – Haptics feedback for navigation | Coldstreams.com by Edward Mitchell Says:

    […] “HALO For The Visually Impaired” – Haptics feedback for navigation Posted on February 24, 2011 by Edward Devices uses sensors to measure distances to nearby objects and provides feedback by applying a vibration sensation to areas around the head. The more the vibration the closer the object. The purpose of this is to experiment with a system for the visually impaired:  Arduino Blog » Blog Archive » HALO For The Visually Impaired. […]

  3. Arduino Blog » Blog Archive » Bat Goggles For Visually Impaired From USI Says:

    […] seems like part of the Arduino projects lately hang around “visually impaired” solutions. This is the research from Alex Tomic form USI in Lugano. The “Bat Goggles” are a […]

  4. Arduino Blog » Blog Archive » The Tacit Project Let’s Your Wrist Guide You Says:

    […] replacing the sight (above all, you’ll remember the [Bat Googles] project from USI and [Halo], the winner project of Humana […]

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