Vibrating Vest for the Blind

About 285 million people worldwide are visually impaired, according to the World Health Organization.  There are over six million people in the United States alone that have reported to have a visual disability. Yet in developed countries, most blind people still navigate using the standard white cane, which was invented in 1921.

Today's prosthetic limbs restore many of the functions of missing limbs, but the technology for overcoming blindness is limited. Now, a team of researcher’s hopes to change that, by developing high-tech clothing that could help visually impaired people navigate. 

The New York-based company, Tactile Navigation Tools, is developing a hands-free wearable device that uses sensors to detect obstacles and can alert the wearer to them with vibrations. Known as Eyeronman, the device could aid not only the blind, but also firefighters, soldiers and others, its developers say.

Eyeronman consists of a vest outfitted with sensors and emitters for LIDAR, a laser-based system used in driverless cars; ultrasound, which is used by bats and other animals for echolocation; and infrared, a type of electromagnetic radiation used by pit vipers to detect prey by sensing body heat.

The system converts input from these sensors into vibrations in a T-shirt made from electro-active polymers. For example, an obstacle on the wearer's lower left would cause the lower-left part of the shirt to vibrate. The system is designed to provide 360-degree obstacle detection, its developers say.

The patent-pending Eyeronman system could also be used by soldiers in combat, police or firefighters, who may have limited vision at night or due to smoke from fires or explosions, according to the company's website.

Right now, the system is still in the prototype phase. Not all of the sensors will work ideally in all environments, so the researchers need to determine which ones work best and figure out how they can be made inexpensively.