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Article Summary 5

• The “smart cane” was developed in India in order to provide independent mobility for blind people at a low-cost

 

• It uses an ultrasound in order to recognize obstacles in the path of users

 

• Rather than having a seeing eye dog, they can have a sense of independence and be more at ease that they can use less than a dog, but still have more than just a walking stick

 

• The older canes were good at detecting waist length obstacles, but when it came to things such as tree branches, they are pretty much useless

 

• The makers of the smart cane used the skills of animals such as bats. For example, they emit sonar calls into their surroundings and use the echoes bouncing back from nearby objects to divert around them

 

• The smart cane instead sends out ultrasound waves from a device attached to simply a standard white crane

 

• It then detects them on its return and if there are any obstacles, the user is notified by vibrations.

 

• The biggest difference is that this canes ultrasound scans 45 degrees above the knee. This provides information about the surroundings that a regular cane cannot. Not only that but when the user is moving the cane from left to right as they walk, they’ll know to move to the other side if vibrations are felt on the opposite side.

 

• Differing patterns and intensities of vibration tells the user the distance of the object in their path. (It goes up to 3 meters away)

 

• The SmartCane™ is not the first type of crane with this technology. Other versions are in countries like South Korea, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. The “UltraCane” has been available in those places since 2011

 

• While it was available it was very costly. ($1,000) This made it virtually unavailable in developing countries.

 

• The goal for Balakrishnan and his team had been to make a low-cost cane in order to provide independence to the 15 million people estimated to be blind in India, where blindness is a national health priority.

 

• It retails at only 3,000 Indian rupees which is only $50. The UltraCane was 20 times that amount.

 

• It was tested using a series of 150 trials and is now available to buy.

 

• They have a new goal of at least 50 partners, including government institutions and local NGOs. This will make their aim of bringing independence to all the visually impaired people not only in India, but eventually beyond the country to benefit other low-income populations a lot more realistic.