Visual-tactile sensory substitution for blind with array of infrared sensors

CERVELLINI M. P.; GONZÁLEZ E. L.; TULLI J. C.; URIZ A. J.; AGÜERO P. D.; KUZMAN M. G.

Oro Verde

Congreso; XIV Reunión de trabajo en Procesamiento de la Información y Control; 2011

FIUNER

Considering blindness as the loss or decrease of the sense of sight, a possible palliative to this disability could be increasing the capacity to operate of two of the four other senses (taste, touch, smell and hearing). Most of the travel aids developed since white cane in 1921 are found within this line of thought. Some, as the mentioned cane, are extensionsof the sense of touch, and others use the sense of hearing. The problem of this idea is that, both the sense of touch and hearing are notidle, and in visually disabled people the hearing sense is extremely necessary to overload it with more information. Some obstacle detectors have major problems because they have to be held by one hand, which is a limitation. This project explores the use of the sense of touch, but leaving the hands unoccupied, giving more freedom to blind people. A tactile radar that transmits information with a head band (Haptic Radar) is taken as reference, but powered with the use of a tactile stimuli, whenever an obstacle is detected. The proposed implementation uses the Sharp GP2D12 IR distance detector sensor, and the 18F46K20 Microchip microcontroller.