Prototype Smart Cane Could Transform Lives of the Blind and Visually Impaired
From: Wireless Design Magazine - 11/23/2016

mySmartCane allows visual impaired people to sense their environment beyond
the physical length of their cane.

Vasileios Tsormpatzoudis, a researcher at The University of Manchester's
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering used 3-D printing and cheap
sensors to create an ultrasonic sensory ball, which attaches to the bottom of
most existing white-canes.

The ultrasonic ball wirelessly measures the distance to approaching objects
and converts this data into an audio signal. The visually impaired user can
gauge the object distance from the frequency of the sound.

Vasileios says his prototype is still at an early stage and added: "I do have
many ideas to refine the design further. For example, I want to add an
additional sensor to detect overhead obstacles such as sign-posts or doorways
which could cause injury and are impossible to detect with a normal
white-cane. Another innovation could be using vibration rather sound."

Read the entire article an video a video (1:43) at:
https://www.wirelessdesignmag.com/news/2016/11/prototype-smart-cane-could-transform-lives-blind-and-visually-impaired
https://www.mdtmag.com/news/2016/11/prototype-smart-cane-could-transform-lives-blind-and-visually-impaired
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/prototype-smart-cane

Link:
A Smart Cane That Could Transform Navigation for the Blind and Visually
  Impaired
https://www.coolblindtech.com/a-smart-cane-that-could-transform-navigation-for-the-blind-and-visually-impaired

Not related:
FreeVoxTouch, First Smart Watch for the Blind
https://www.coolblindtech.com/freevoxtouch-first-smart-watch-for-the-blind