Core Concept
What started as a fun challenge for ourselves because a possible market right for disruption. After a bit of research, there are times in which the visually impaired/handicapped people are oversaturated with stimuli and are unable to function at optimal efficiency. Examples of this are large crowds with huge amounts of ambient sound (i.e. a concert or a very large city).
Enter the Go Band. When paired with a camera and a friend, this device will take input and vibrate in the direction you need to move. With multiple ways to input data into this device and a stylish design, user's will love this device and love being seen in it.
Features
- An armband with four DC motors that vibrate to tell you where to go
- A Leap Motion interface to direct the armband wearer to go
- A Pebble application that allows further control of the armband wearer while on the go
- A web interface to control the armband from anywhere in the world
- Artisanal handmade design made with love in Kent, Ohio
How It Works
We hooked a Spark Core up to four DC motors that correspond to the directions forward, backward, left and right. By combining these, we can add movements for the diagonals between the two as well as a stop motion. Initially, we thought using a Leap Motion would be the ultimate means of providing the wearer directions, we quickly realized that, while awesome, wasn't the most precise way of delivering instructions and created a web application and Pebble smartwatch app to provide precise instructions.
Practical Applications
- Remote assistance for the visually impaired/handicapped
- Coordination of movements amongst large groups, like marching bands
- Controlling a willing friend's movements for fun
- Games of silent Marco Polo
- Possible military applications
Further Additions/Opportunities
Ideally, this application would be perfect when paired with some sort of automatic AI and a streaming camera, or at the very least, a live remote operator with a live feed to the users surrounding, so that they can provide the user assistance in situations otherwise untenable.
Furthermore, we didn't have access to a GPS, camera, or mobile data module during this competition. If we had access to one or more of these, we would have executed the same process but with more features. These are things that we might be interested in pursuing if customer demand is there.In fact, if we were to go to market, we'd want to custom make our PCBs to meet our needs while maintaining a thin, sheek, look.
Also, none of our team members had experience sewing fabric before this weekend, but, if we were to try again, we could do much better.
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