Vibro-haptic white cane with enhanced vibro sensitivity

Abstract

The traditional white cane allows blind persons to understand the environment by tapping the white cane against the objects. It has limited capabilities in detecting objects far from the person. Available electronic blind navigation systems require wearable devices that would cause discomfort to the blind person. This paper proposes a low cost but yet a rugged vibro-haptic white cane to be used as a navigational aid for the blind community. The proposed system allows a blind person to understand distant environment with haptic sensations without any additional wearable devices. The frequency of vibration utilized as the sensation of distance. Proposed device was tested with blind middle school students. The proposed controller was modified accordingly to create a linear distance perception.