

A "life-changing" invention from the West Bank - elblanco
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUO0OGOQ6Zk

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anigbrowl
tl;dw a cane for blind people using two proximity sensors to warn the user of
obstructions or pitfalls, from 3 14-yo girls in a Palestinian high school.
They're now in CA participating in an Intel-sponsored science fair.

Wow - an impressive and clever hack, leveraging cheap, simple technology in an
easy-to-use design for a really worthwhile purpose - one that will benefit
blind people worldwide, and from high-schoolers, no less. So much bad news
comes out of the Middle East that it's heartening to hear of science being
applied to such constructive ends.

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destructobot
I saw this demoed by Cambridge Consultants nearly 10 years ago. Let's hope
these kids get it to market where it can actually be used by people.

Cambridge Consultants' press release about their "bat cane":
<http://www.cambridgeconsultants.com/news_pr58.html>

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georgieporgie
Man, I have to say that "Batcane" sounds like one of the worst product names
I've ever heard of...

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queensnake
You could expand the forward sensor to multiples, for doorways or people, say;
have a few, say, 5, or 3 at different horizontal forward angles, with
corresponding vibrators or a sequence of audible beeps (low, non-annoying when
nothing is present). The user would learn to map these vibrations / beeps to
the real world, as shown by that guy with the belt of cellphone buzzers a
couple of years ago.

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spoiledtechie
I am soo surprised by this invention not hitting the market years ago. It
surprises me to the fact that we still used just basic sticks for the blind.
We are trying to fix their biological conditions, but never have we tried to
just make it easier for them to get around while they wait for the biological
part...

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KingOfB
A good friend of mine is blind. I think it has not made it to market because
it's an over-engineered solution that doesn't solve the problem better. Most
blind people would say 'Why the hell would I want a buzzer on a heavy cane?'.
It buzzes when I am near a stair (aka all day long). Or it buzzes when it hit
a step... like it does now when I hit it!

Great story, neat solution, not market viable.

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proee
Here's an idea. Add some spinning gyros in the handle (spinning perpendicular
to the ground). Picture holding a bike wheel...

Then when the sensors detect an object the axis of the gyro tilt so that it
cause the cane to move in the opposite direction of the object. This way you
can "feel" objects as opposed to hear them.

Amen?

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mhb
Gyros + batteries = heavy

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vyksyt
Actually, MEMS gyros (~3-4v power requirement) with NiMh batteries (~8.4v)
might work. Just mount batteries near the handle.

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ars
He's not suggesting using the hydro to detect position. He's suggesting using
it for force feedback.

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varjag
The hand-drawn periodic table in the background is sad.

Cheers for the girls, hope they make it to the prize.

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clistctrl
I Feel like the periodic table in the background is great, not being produced
on a mass scale doesn't reduce its value.

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thisduck
But it also speaks to the access to education those in the West Bank have
compared to ALL their neighbours.

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nir
Actually Palestinians have the highest literacy rate of any Arab nationals:
<http://middleeast.about.com/od/middleeast101/a/me090425b.htm>

Good on them, in any case. We need more of that in the Middle East.

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jganetsk
Both of you are agreeing with each other.

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pavs
Something similar was patented in 1991:
[http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=ggQqAAAAEBAJ&dq=5...](http://www.google.com/patents/about?id=ggQqAAAAEBAJ&dq=5097856)

Got the link from Reddit.

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count
A local high-school science program did this a few years ago as well, for an
MIT sponsored challenge. Came up with the same basic idea.

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swah
Sincerely I think the original cane was a more breakthrough idea.

