Preliminary Design Sketches
STEM 2, or Assistive Technology (AT), starts in March and goes until the end of the year. This project is project is group oriented with a company-like structure with the CEO selecting group members. Your group must research an issue that people are facing, work with clients, and design a device to help address their need.
Many Visually Impaired People (VIPs) struggle to detect obstacles above the waist. This stems from VIPs relying on canes and potentially guide dogs for detection. However, if a VIP was walking towards a low hanging branch, the cane would not be able to detect that. There is currently no efficient, cheap, and reliable way for VIPs to detect objects above the waist
We aim to develop a device that uses a sensor at chest height to detect objects above the VIPs waist. When an object is in range, the device will alert the user via haptic feedback or auditory feedback. After several sketches, we decided that a vest would be the most viable option as it provides for a good sensor height and allows for a more even distribution of weight.
