Students Build a Car the Blind Can Drive

By John Farrier in Science & Tech on Jul 24, 2009 at 2:02 pm

Engineering students at Virginia Tech have built a car that can be driven by the visually impaired. The vehicle is equipped with laser range finders and a semi-autonomous computer that helps direct drivers around a course that they can’t see:

The steering wheel is hooked up to a distance monitor that gathers information from laser range finders, and it uses voice software to tells the driver how far to turn the wheel. For example, the monitor will tell the driver “turn left three clicks.” As the driver does that, the monitor makes three clicking noises.

A vibrating vest provides cues to follow when accelerating and decelerating. The vest vibrates in different places — the back, the belly and the shoulders — to convey different commands. When the entire vest vibrates, it means, “Slam on the brakes!”

Link

Tags: blind, blindness, Virginia Tech, visually impaired

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Cait
Jul 24th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
That’s great–but who needs a driver if the car already knows what to do?
Guest
Jul 24th, 2009 at 3:03 pm
So what was the criteria for the words in the headline to start with a capital letter?
SenorMysterioso
Jul 24th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Neatorama editors are encouraged to capitalize words in a manner that will most annoy you Guest
Ashley
Jul 24th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Nice and all, but I really, really don’t trust it. I would never put my life in its hands driving down a busy road, nor would I want someone else risking my life while they use it.
Vonskippy
Jul 24th, 2009 at 4:13 pm
BUT ALL CAPS ARE A SHORTCUT TO AWESOME!!!!!!!!
Geekazoid
Jul 24th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
I agree with Ashley. This is probably more of a neat ‘side’ project than something with real life applications. There are just too many intangibles driving out on the roads for this to be anything more than that.
Kalel
Jul 24th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
Why does it have headlights?
Ashley
Jul 24th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
Haha good question Kalel
Johnny Cat
Jul 24th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Kalel, too funny!
whattha
Jul 24th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Captain Obvious stopped by and informed me that headlights are not only a great way to see, but to be seen as well.
Guest
Jul 25th, 2009 at 5:52 pm
As much as I support diasbled-friendly things, the last thing we need is blind drivers… god help us if this becomes more than a school project…
Alex
Jul 25th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
Nothing too special here. Blind people can drive *any* car. Once.
Sherryl Ramsahai
Oct 11th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
Hi, I am a mom of 2 and who is visually impaired, my dad to day life is very difficult as it is. I think this is absolutely amazing! There are many visually impaired individuals out there including myself who can’t wait for this technology to be available to the public. I have read alot of negativity regarding the subject and of course all of which must no doubt come from naive people who obviously have good/better vision that those deemed impaired. I think as a society we should come together and support such projects. Yes, there are bugs to deal with like any other invention, but I believe the end result will reap more good than bad. I myself, am not completely bind, but don’t have enough visibilty to drive and therefore something like this would be great for me. Imagine the possibilities. Keep up the great work guys!

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