http://www.engadget.com/2004/12/15/researchers-working-on-virtual-canes-for-the-blind/ Engadget Comments for Researchers working on "virtual canes" for the blind http://www.engadget.com/media/feedlogo.gif http://www.engadget.com en-us Copyright 2012 Weblogs, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only. Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.engadget.com/2004/12/15/researchers-working-on-virtual-canes-for-the-blind/http://www.engadget.com/2004/12/15/researchers-working-on-virtual-canes-for-the-blind/Dec 19th 2005 1:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/12/15/researchers-working-on-virtual-canes-for-the-blind/http://www.engadget.com/2004/12/15/researchers-working-on-virtual-canes-for-the-blind/Dec 19th 2005 1:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/12/15/researchers-working-on-virtual-canes-for-the-blind/http://www.engadget.com/2004/12/15/researchers-working-on-virtual-canes-for-the-blind/Dec 19th 2005 1:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/12/15/researchers-working-on-virtual-canes-for-the-blind/http://www.engadget.com/2004/12/15/researchers-working-on-virtual-canes-for-the-blind/
I can see how this would appeal to my blind technophile friends, but it just ain't pratical, it just ain't safe.

My (blind) wife has this to add: "That gizmo would be useless for beating the crap out of sighties that get in my way".]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/12/15/researchers-working-on-virtual-canes-for-the-blind/http://www.engadget.com/2004/12/15/researchers-working-on-virtual-canes-for-the-blind/
Your brain has a built in 3D model of the world around you. Even when you are blind your brain is still building and maintaining that model. I have had very little success with that model being truly updated by external descriptions, whereas the sense of touch, as extended by a cane, plugs straight into that model. When I touch the edge of a stair with a cane I am able to confidently walk to that edge, I can then touch the edge of the next stair, with the updated 3D model (and practice) I can confidently descend stairs and locate obstacles like inconsiderate humans sitting on the stairs in the bus tunnel in down town Seattle (a hazard for sighted folks trying to catch a bus in a hurry as well.)

The other major issue is navigation. A cane lets a blind person feel their way across an intersection. Those white lines painted on the street with thick paint can be felt with the cane and let you walk across the street with more confidence, just as they let the sighted see photons reflecting from them to aid them as well. Again, no talking device is going to assist with that.

If the device vibrated to let you feel the edge of the strip that would be useful, but the challenges in interpreting a small dot that varies in diameter with range into a usefully integrated sense of touch feedback signal would be incredibly complex. Much more difficult than tracking a DVD's data thread via laser. And who wants to trust their life to a device that could freak out like a DVD player given a scratched disc to play?

The real world is much more scratched up than even your most abused yet almost still playable DVD.

A cane also aids in navigation by allowing the user to finger print the world they travel through. The sighted see and recall land marks. A cane user feels landmarks through the cane.

In down town Seattle the NW corner of 3rd and Spring has a unique patch of very pebbly concrete that very nicely lets you know you are at the NW corner of 3rd and Spring.

The cane also allows you to identify things by sound. You can gently tap things and for example hear the gorilla bars on an SUV inconsiderately parked too far forward onto a walkway. You can tap metal poles installed to protect buildings from delivery vehicles. You can tap two side by side blocks of concrete and hear a subtle difference in the sound from them and tell where the sidewalk meets the interior slab of a building.

A laser sensor is very unlikely to be capable of rendering such assistance.

The third major issue I see is the already raised point of a white cane being a signal to others with normal sight that this person is someone that you MUST respect the personal space of. What it is really saying is: Sorry but you can't cut corners with my safety.

Running late to get to Crossroads Cinema to catch Ocean's Twelve before it starts? A normally sighted person can usually accommodate your not respecting their personal safety by cutting through the cross walk ahead of them forcing them to suddenly stop or become a hood ornament. But a person navigating with a white cane unfortunately can't compensate very well for your personal need to invade their personal space with your 2 ton SUV.

Even with white cane laws an increasing number of drivers routinely make decisions to invade the personal space of those using those white canes. At times it can almost seem as though a sighted driver must be thinking "Oh, poor blind person, your life must really suck, here, let me run you down in something they'll call an accident and I'll spare you the misery of the rest of your life."

A laser based "virtual cane" seems like a major set back in what little protection a white cane provides.

The other issue alluded to was "caning" the sighted to draw their attention to your needs. When a person using a white cane approaches a curb they need to find that curb and stand right on top of it. It is the safest way for them to cross the street. If someone is on a cell phone yammering away totally tuned out of the world around them the cane can be VERY useful in getting them to take a moment out of their personal life to kindly move aside, thank you kind sir. No virtual cane is going to provide that attention gaining assistance.

I'd like to close this comment with one further thought for those reading it. One person above expressed fear about the blind being turned loose with lasers. The blind don't need your fear, they don't need your pity. The one unfortunate thing they need is for you to respect that in some cases its easier for you to quietly move your personal space than it is for them to move their personal space to avoid your personal space.

If you want to stand there like a tree in the path of a blind person then you need to be prepared for them to tap you and find their way around you. Much in the same way that a normally sighted person finds their way around you via observing photons bouncing off you, except being tapped by a cane is much more personal than being tapped by a photon. To be tapped, or not to be tapped, the choice is yours.]]>Dec 19th 2005 1:38AMhttp://www.engadget.com/2004/12/15/researchers-working-on-virtual-canes-for-the-blind/http://www.engadget.com/2004/12/15/researchers-working-on-virtual-canes-for-the-blind/Dec 19th 2005 1:38AM