Stanford University researchers have constructed a cane that could be of significant use to the blind or visually impaired.
The standard white cane is an essential aid for getting out and about for many visually impaired people, but to date, it hasn’t offered much in the way of affordable modern updates. Borrowing technology designed for autonomous vehicles, the team has come up with a self-navigating smart cane that can identify obstacles in the surrounding environment, and nudge the user safely away from them.
What benefits does this cane have over previous smart canes?
One of the biggest benefits of the new augmented cane is that it significantly cheaper than smart canes that came before it. Some of the past smart canes were extremely heavy, weighing up to 50 pounds, and cost as much as $6000.
The new augmented cane utilizes state-of-the-art sensors and only weighs three pounds. It could be built at home from freely available parts and open-source software for a price of around $400.
What have the tests of the cane revealed?
In tests, the smart, augmented cane increased walking speed for visually impaired volunteers by 18 percent. For the 250 million people with vision loss worldwide, this assistive technology could lead to a serious increase in their quality of life.
How does the cane work?
The cane is designed to help the user detect any obstacles in their path and easily navigate around those obstacles indoors or out. The smart cane relies heavily on LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), which uses reflecting lasers to spot objects and just distance.
Among the sensors used by the cane is a LIDAR sensor used to measure the distance to obstacles to help users navigate around those obstacles. Additional sensors include GPS, accelerometers, magnetometers, and gyroscopes. The sensors work together to monitor the user’s position, speed, direction, and other data.
The cane also has his AI-based wayfinding and robotics algorithms similar to simultaneous localization and mapping technology. At the tip of the cane is a motorized omnidirectional wheel designed to be in constant contact with the ground. That wheel is a critical component of the system and leads the user by gently pulling left or right around obstacles. The integrated GPS capability can guide the user to precise locations.
On the software side, the cane uses several artificial intelligence algorithms, including simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM), a way of building up a map of an unknown area while also keeping track of a user’s location within it.
At the tip of the cane, a motorized, omnidirectional wheel can nudge walkers in one direction or another, and can even be used to direct someone to a destination like a coffee shop (much like a smartphone or car sat nav would).
“We wanted something more user-friendly than just a white cane with sensors,” says mechanical engineer Patrick Slade from Stanford University in California. “Something that cannot only tell you there’s an object in your way, but tell you what that object is and then help you navigate around it.”
“We want the humans to be in control but provide them with the right level of gentle guidance to get them where they want to go as safely and efficiently as possible,” says computer scientist Mykel Kochenderfer, also from Stanford.
The cane was developed with the help of visually impaired people, who gave “incredible feedback” according to Slade. A lot of the decisions around design and navigation were made based on the feedback of those who would actually be using the device.
When can the cane be available to consumers?
Right now, this is still a research prototype. The team has made their design open-source, so anyone with the necessary know-how and materials (which cost about $400) can build their own version of the smart cane and assist in its development.
“We wanted to optimize this project for ease of replication and cost,” says Kochenderfer. “Anyone can go and download all the code, bill of materials, and electronic schematics, all for free.”
Source: Science Robotics
