User:Ausion/sandbox

Table of Contents

History Mobility Aids for the Visually Impaired White Cane Electronic Mobility aids Object detection Range Feedback to the user

• InnovatioHub Technologies company logo
  InnovatioHub Technologies company logo

InnovationHub Technologies, headquartered in Bangalore, India was founded in 2013 with a focus towards utilizing technology to Enhance the Quality of Living for the Visually impaired. The company has created its first product - a mobility aid called AUSION (AUdio viSION) that is available in India.

History

InnovationHub Technologies was founded by Vinod Deshmukh and Padmanabhan SN, veterans in the Technology Industry. A passion to build technology based solutions to assist people with disability was the main driver behind this venture.

Mobility Aids for visually impaired

A mobility aid is an instrument that is designed to assist walking or improve the mobility of people with impairments. Multiple aids are available today specifically designed to address the visually impaired.

Several Universities, Researchers and entrepreneurs across the world have invested many years of research to design mobility and orientation aids for people with Visual impairments. Many apps are available today on smartphone platforms to provide different degrees of assistance.

The main purpose behind these mobility aids are

- Safety - creating a safe path for them to move - Independence - To utilize Technology and provide better information about the environment. - Productivity and participation in normal community life.

The degree of acceptance of any mobility aid depends on multiple factors like device cost, availability of local training, ease of usage, simplicity of the feedback given, ability to use in all (or most) normal situations encountered in daily life and the ability to be used in both indoor and outdoor environments.

White cane

The white cane has been the defacto mobility aid used for over 50 years by the visually impaired and is used widely in the world. The white cane gives feedback via tactile means. The various sounds that the cane makes when it is tapped on the ground gives different kinds of feedback to the user. Users can get a feel for the kind of terrain, the surface, the level and texture of the ground on which they are walking on. Mobility instructors train people for a period of upto 6 months to get familiar with the aid and to ensure they get through regular operations of life (walking, getting to a store, going to work etc). With proper training, people can identify the texture of the surface, if the surface is wet or dry and most obstacles at ground level.

The two point touch technique is taught during mobility training - this involves the blind person to tap the cane at two points in front of them to get a tactile feel of the environment. Since the sweeping (or two point touch technique) is done at the ground level, low overhanging branches or other objects that obstruct at the head level cannot be detected by the white cane. Parked cars and other vehicles can be detected if they have a profile at the ground level. Several trucks have a chassis that are at the head/chest level and nothing at the ground level - the wheels are generally about 6-10 feet inside the body. Such obstacles may be tough to detect with the white cane. In these circumstances, there is a possibility of the blind person of bumping into the object and causing injuries.

Electronic mobility aids

In recent years, there have been several electronic mobility aids which attempt to give more information to the user. Eg: Distance to the obstacle, direction of the obstacle - is it to the left, right, or in front of the user and at what level - foot level, chest level or the head/neck region). Several technologies have been used to provide better visual mobility aids with varying adoption rates. (Laser, Ultrasound, Infrared etc).

An electronic mobility aid typically consists of these components -

- Technology to detect an object - Identification of the position with respect to the user (Left, right, bottom, top) - A Signal Processing Engine that converts the distance information to some form of feedback that is useful - An User Interface allowing certain settings to be customised

Object Detection

Ultrasound waves is a common technology for detection of obstacles in several such devices. The device usually consists of one or more Ultrasound transmitters which send out the Ultrasound waves at a specific frequency. Some devices send in a single frequency (typically around 40KHz) and others send in multiple frequencies (varying from 25KHz to 65KHz).

The waves hit objects in the front and bounce back to the Receiver. The reflection of sound follows the law "angle of incidence equals angle of reflection", sometimes called the law of reflection. The same behavior is observed with light and other waves. The reflected waves can interfere with incident waves, producing patterns of constructive and destructive interference. Depending on the phase change in the wave, the device is able to compute the distance to the object. Thus, such sensors can very accurately determine the distance information (accuracy within 1cm) and give feedback.

Range

Typical Ultrasound sensors have a range of up to 5 meters (15 feet). However, as the distance increases, there are larger chances of wave scattering and feedback can tend to become unreliable. Thus, in practice, it is best to limit the range to about 3m (9 feet).

Ausion is one such electronic mobility aid that uses the Echolocation principle to detect objects in front of the user. Ausion uses Ultrasound sensors that transmit at 40KHz. The device then converts the distance information to unique sound patterns that alerts the user about the presence of an obstacle. Ausion can be set to detect objects in 3 ranges - 1m, 2m and 3m.

Feedback to the user

Once the obstacle is detected, devices use a varied set of technologies to give feedback to the user. Vibration, Haptic feedback and sound are used in various devices. Ausion converts distance information to unique sound notes (similar to the notes heard in a piano). By learning the notes, users can train themselves to intuitively recognise the distance to an obstacle.

Challenges of Electronic mobility aids

In theory, electronic devices with sensors can detect all objects in the specified range. But, alerting the user about all such objects will make it confusing, and worse - can be disorienting too. Hence, designers have to make very careful choices about making it easy and yet be accurate.

Certain sensors can give wrong/incorrect feedback even when an object is not present. Devices will have to understand the sensor characteristics carefully and filter out all such false positives. If cases that tend to give such “false positives” are not handled well, users may not trust the feedback given.

Since sensors will have to be exposed to the elements, handling rain, snow and other weather related conditions is a challenge. While devices can handle light rain, heavy rain or a sustained water inlet to the sensor can inhibit normal operations or even lead to permanent damage of the sensor elements.

People across the world have been used to seeing the visually impaired using a White cane or a guide dog as primary mobility aids. By moving the mobility aids to something smaller, and more discreet, it may be challenging to the general public to recognise visually impaired people in public settings.

Device distribution

AUSION devices have been distributed with the help of Samarthanam trust, an organization that is committed to empower the visually impaired, disabled and underprivileged people of India. Samarthanam also provides the required mobility training to enable effective usage.

In its short tenure of 3 years, Innovation Hub Technologies has been covered in several magazines and newspapers.

1. Bangalore Mirror, “THE SEEING EYE”, June 1, 2015 The Seeing-Eye device

2. MOTHERBOARD, “This Handheld Device Will Help The Blind Echolocate”, July 20, 2015 This device will help the blind echolocate

3. Tech Times, “This Small Device Will Help Blind People Echolocate”, July 20, 2015 http://www.techtimes.com/articles/70373/20150720/small-device-will-help-blind-people-echolocate.htm

4. Deccan Herald, “IITans Invent Aid Kit For The Visually Impaired”, September 26,2015 http://www.deccanherald.com/content/502931/iitians-invent-aid-kit-visually.html

5. Jet Wings, “AUSION”, October 2015 http://www.jetairways.com/Uploads/e-Mag/Category/JetWings%20Domestic/October%202015/jetflash_content.html#features/241

6. Deccan Herald, “Mobility device for visually impaired”, December 2015 http://www.deccanherald.com/content/517144/mobility-device-visually-impaired.html

7. New Indian Express, “Travel Aid Device for Visually Impaired Launched”, December 2015 http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/Travel-Aid-Device-for-Visually-Impaired-Launched-at-Samarthanam-Walkathon/2015/12/13/article3175171.ece

8. Rotary News, “Audio Vision – Made In India”, May 2016 https://rotarynewsonline.org/audio-vision-made-in-india/