Communications of the ACM
Berkeley Students Create Wheelchair Add-On to Help Blind Users Navigate
Two students at the University of California, Berkeley have developed a low-cost, add-on system for wheelchairs to make navigation easier for visually-impaired users.
Credit: R&D Magazine
Two researchers at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) have developed WheelSense, a low-cost, modular, customizable add-on system for wheelchairs that employs sensors and software to make navigation easier for visually-impaired users.
UC Berkeley students Tomas Vega and Corten Singer designed WheelSense to use infrared range finders that detect the distance to an obstacle, or if the distance from the sensor to the ground is about to change. It emits a tone when it senses a frontal drop-off such as stairs or a curb, while additional sensors detect the edges of wheelchair ramps or other pathways. If a user comes too close to an edge of a ramp, the system vibrates the appropriate armrest to alert the user to adjust the steering.
Vega and Singer have made their prototype design and software code open source to encourage others to build on their model and pursue assistive technology development.
From R&D Magazine
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