Virtual Cane: SONAR Helps Visually Impaired See Up To 10 Meters

Virtual Cane developed by Hebrew University will allow the virtually impaired see up to a distance of 10 meters. We recently reported about a #-Link-Snipped-# which uses similar techniques to generate vibrations of varying magnitude to alert the user. Virtual Cane is a similar product but as the name suggests, it's virtual. The virtual cane is a handheld object that emits a focused beam of sound waves which reflect from objects. A receiver catches these reflected waves and determines how far they are. The information is then relayed to the user through a series of vibrations.

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Image Credit: GIZMAG

The virtual cane was demoed at Jerusalem by Dr. Amid Amedi of Institute for Medical Research Israel-Canada. The device uses SONAR which is an abbreviation of SOund Navigation And Ranging. The device keeps on scanning the environment continuously and as soon as it detects an obstacle, it activates the vibrations. According to the researchers, the virtual cane is easy to use and can be adopted in just few minutes. It has a battery that lasts for about 12 hours. The cost of the device would be close to $100.Check out following video demo -



We believe the need of pocket-friendly innovations for the physically or visually challenged people is the need of hour. While virtual can costs about $100, the smart cane developed by IIT Delhi engineers costs only around $45. The advancements in technology by combining existing technologies is no doubt encouraging. If you come across such innovations, feel free to share them with us.

Via: #-Link-Snipped-#