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The story of a PhD student weaving his way through a busy university corridor doesn’t usually make for breaking news. But then the average PhD student isn’t wheelchair-bound, visually impaired, and testing a new laser-based wheelchair navigation system. In front of a crowd of onlookers earlier this month, a student performed the first public demonstration of a wheelchair that lets blind people “see” and avoid obstacles, afterward remarking that it was just “like using a white cane<\/a>” (presumably underselling the technology to blunt the jealousy blooming in the onlookers).<\/p> From the user’s perspective, the new high-tech wheelchair is quite simple: You hold a joystick in one hand to drive the motorized chair, while the other hand engages a “haptic interface” that gives tactile feedback warning you about objects in your path, be they walls, fire hydrants, or those mobile collision-makers called people.<\/p> Developed at Sweden’s Luleå University of Technology (who brought us the autonomous wheelchair<\/a>), this wheelchair uses lasers that make use of the time of flight<\/a> technique, wherein “a laser pulse is sent out and a portion of the pulse is reflected from any surface encountered<\/a>,” and the distance ...<\/p> The story of a PhD student weaving his way through a busy university corridor doesn’t usually make for breaking news. But then the average PhD student isn’t wheelchair-bound, visually impaired, and testing a new laser-based wheelchair navigation system. In front … Continue reading <\/a>
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