Inspiration
We were inspired by the community service initiative, Dine in the Dark, which aimed to raise awareness for the day-to-day struggles of visually impaired individuals in our community. We wanted to create a product that would be of practical use to individuals who depended on tools like walking sticks to get around.
What it does
Our product aims to help the visually impaired gain a clearer understanding of their surroundings while they are out-and-about. It achieves this by providing haptic feedback to the user when they are close to obstacles in their path, while also warning them of possible barriers in the road well in advance.
How we built it
We mounted an ultrasonic sensor to a makeshift walking cane, which was programmed to buzz with increasing intensity if the walking stick ended up too close to an obstacle. Additionally, a computer vision device was also added to the walking cane, which takes periodic snapshots of the users imminent path. These images were then sent to an object recognition model, which would inform the user via speech of the possible hurdles ahead.
Challenges we ran into
We spent a lot of time on the ideation process, and made sure that we had a concrete plan before putting our thoughts into action.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We learnt to use new components that we had previously never encountered, and learnt to develop an mobile application for the first time.
What we learned
We learned how to work together as a team, as well as combine our knowledge in both hardware and software to create a viable product.
What's next for Be The Change
We hope to learn more about the ideas and implementation from the other teams, and apply them in our own projects in the future.
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