Focus Area

Lack of independent mobility is one of the most troubling issues that visually impaired people have to face. This inability denies the visually impaired equal access to buildings, limits their use of public transportation, and makes the visually impaired in the USA a group ith one of the highest unemployment rates(74%).[1]

Although there are a handful of products developed to help, the situation hasn't changed a lot. White cane , since it was introduced in 1921, is still the dominant mobility aid for blind people. Other electronic aids, such as Ultra Cane , K Sonar , or some talking GPS , although successful technically, yet have not reached the people who need them.

One important aspect is price. As developed exclusively for blind/low vision people, which represent 0.02% population globally, those products have very good functionality. However, this exclusiveness kills the interest of the other 99.98% people, hence makes the cost of production high, the accessibility low, and the evolution slow.

As a example, a white cane typically costs 400 to 1000 SEK in sweden (ca. 50-122 USD), whereas a pretty decent trekking pole 200-500 SEK (ca. 25-60 USD). The price for a white cane is about twice as much as its trekking equivalance.

It is even more for electronic products. A typical DAISY audiobook player costs from 3000 to 8000 SEK (ca. 370-980 USD, figure gathered from Polar Print Catalog 2009), and you know how much a typical mp3 player costs. I'm not gonna talk about the appeal of those players here, but if you're interested you can have a look.

The ease of use is also a deciding factor. As 82% of visually impaired people are over 50 years [2], technically demanding products would make little sense.

So here I come up with a conclusion: in order to make a product useful for visually impaired, I should not make something useful for them only.

References:

[1] M.P. LaPlante and D. Carlson, Disability in the United States: Prevalence and Causes. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Institue of Disability and Rehabilitation Research, 2000.

[2] WHO, Magnitude and causes of visual impairment, 2004

Update on Sat, April 11, 2009 at 19:18 by Lin Tao

In general, mobility aids for visually impaired people fall into 2 categories: navigation and obstacle detection.

Existing navigation aids is mostly talking GPS , which basically, is a talking GPS.

For obstacle detection, the most important tool is of course, the white cane. Due to the simplicity, versatility and reasonable price, there's not yet any electronic aids that can replace it. From a social point of view, it is also generally accepted. Some of the interviewees think it as a symbol of their independence.

There are also some electronic aids for obstacle detection, such as ultra cane , K Sonar , and some ongoing projects like I Cane . They are basically extensions of white cane, using sonar and other sensor technology, to help identify and detect obstacles.

I choose my focus area as navigation, as I think existing navigation aids like talking GPS is not satisfactory enough based on the following reasons.

First, they rely on solely voice feedback, which is not always feasible, for example, in noisy urban environment. Auditory feedback also needs a lot cognitive resource, and will mask the auditory sense of visually impaired people, on which they heavily rely.

Second, more and more mobile devices today are equipped with navigation functions like GPS, and will probably evolve faster in the near future. Most visually impaired people I interviewed showed strong wish to use "ordinary" thing that everybody uses. So in my opinion, if there's more attention put into accessibility when designing mobile phones, there's not much point to spend a fortune on a dedicated talking GPS.

Third, there's a potential need among normal sighted people, to have a more intuitive tool to navigate. There are situations that, people don't want to look at the screen to be navigated, such as when shopping, cykling, being in the airport with luggages on both hands etc.

Therefore, I think there's a niche for such a product, which could give people orientation with a simple and intuitive way. It could take advantage of existing mobile devices' platform and computing power to reduce size, complexity, and hence price. (In other words, it works as an extension to the mobile devices.)

Comments

[olivier clerc]

Hi Lin,
Hope you have read my email, after i just discovered your diploma in Umea.
This is not about a niche product.
This is the universal gps interface product that you have designed just by implementing the perfect interface that should fit any gps devices and mobile gps enhanced, universally.
gps is not about reading dynamic map.
it is about telling you the way, and it it seems discreet enough, it will look like you are from the neighborhood walking by.
You just made instantly all car GPS industry absolutely useless cause unsafe out of Parrot, may be. all screen devices should be forbidden for GPS system, cause of visual attention loss and it's even true for mobile walking as you might cross a street.
Actual screen GPS make you blind from real space vision :)

it is more about vibrations or simple skin ants effect which need to be tested, may be :)
looking forward next developpments
great job!

[Lin Tao]

Hi Oliveir,

thanks a lot for your reply and I'll keep this updated again! (finally)