Basketball for the blind
A team of undergrad students from Johns Hopkins designed and built a basketball solution for the blind. Both the backboard and ball emit sound — the backboard produces a pulsing tone onto the court, while the ball emits a continuous tone at a higher (and more annoying) pitch. The team had a real challenge in housing a sounding device in an airtight ball, but themsfolks are real smart up in Maryland, so rather than being fooled into thinking Nerf's FIREWIRE™ basketball was their answer, the team turned to Spalding for a solution. So, does it all work? You betcha, Cletus — during a recent demonstration, a blind player was able to catch passes and sink two of his three shots.
