SBIR Phase I: Wearable Haptic Navigation Device for the Blind and Visually Impaired

该项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是改善盲人和视障者（英属维尔京群岛）的导航结果，据世界卫生组织（世卫组织）估计，全世界约有2.85亿人。对于英属维尔京群岛人来说，适应能力和流动性（O&amp；M）是非常具有挑战性的，被认为是他们最重要的两个压力源之一。该公司的目标是将一种有前景的新辅助技术商业化，该技术利用先进的触觉技术（通过触摸进行通信），为英属维尔京群岛人提供新的导航能力。该技术将是一种非侵入式可穿戴设备，结合了高清触觉、GPS和嵌入式蓝牙定位硬件，帮助英属维尔京群岛用户导航到熟悉的和新的目的地。该技术策略通过更充分地利用皮肤，克服了其他BVI航路点辅助技术的不足。利用嵌入式定位硬件，在GPS信号之间提供连续的导航反馈。公司吗?我们的目标是提供一个功能强大的触觉导航解决方案，使尽可能多的英属维尔京群岛人能够使用这项技术，包括先天失明和晚期失明用户、视障人士和法定失明人士。这个小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目将研究利用触觉的新见解来改善数百万患有失明和视力障碍的人的方向和行动能力（O&amp；M）结果的可行性。公司吗?该公司的专利技术是一种新颖的创新策略，结合了直观、高清触觉、定制GPS和嵌入式定位硬件，为英属维尔京群岛导航提供了一种卓越而实用的解决方案。与其他目前可用的触觉导航技术相比，这些技术利用不直观和/或不复杂的触觉反馈，这种新技术结合了精细和多样化的反馈，为用户提供直观和准确的导航信息。通过将GPS与支持蓝牙的嵌入式定位硬件相结合，该策略可以提供连续的导航反馈流，而不会在覆盖范围内出现任何间隙。这个项目吗?关键的技术挑战是提高导航精度，优化触觉语言算法，并减少技术的形状因素/规模。项目团队计划通过研究传感器融合和露点收集的使用来减轻或消除GPS误读，以提高英属维尔京群岛用户位置的保真度。触觉算法需要重新设计和优化，以用于具有成本效益的多致动器设备，该设备的形状/因素可以牢固而舒适地按压手腕。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is improved navigation outcomes for blind and visually impaired (BVI) persons, approximately 285 million people worldwide according to World Health Organization (WHO) estimates. Orientation and Mobility (O&M) is very challenging for the BVI persons, and is rated as one of their two most significant stressors. The company aims to commercialize a promising new assistive technology that utilizes advanced haptics (communication via touch) to enable new powers of navigation for BVI persons. The technology will be a noninvasive and wearable device that combines high-definition haptics with GPS and embedded, Bluetooth-enabled orientation hardware to aid BVI users to navigate to both familiar and new destinations. The technology strategy overcomes the deficiencies of other BVI waypoint assistive technologies by more fully exploiting the skin?s sensory capacity and by utilizing embedded orientation hardware to provide continuous navigation feedback between GPS signals. The company?s goal is to provide a robust, haptic navigation solution with a form factor and price point that makes the technology accessible to the widest possible number of BVI persons, including congenitally and late blind users, the visually impaired and legally blind.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project will research the feasibility of leveraging new insights into haptics to improve Orientation and Mobility (O&M) outcomes for the millions of people who suffer from blindness and visual impairment. The company?s proprietary technology is a novel and innovative strategy that combines intuitive, high-definition haptics, customized GPS, and embedded orientation hardware to deliver a superior and practicable solution for BVI navigation. In contrast to other, currently available haptic navigation technologies, which utilize unintuitive and/or unsophisticated haptic feedback, this new technology incorporates refined and varied feedback that provides the user with intuitive and accurate navigation information. By coupling GPS with Bluetooth-enabled, embedded orientation hardware, the strategy delivers a continuous stream of navigation feedback without any gaps in coverage. The project?s key technical challenges are increasing navigation accuracy, optimizing haptic language algorithms, and reducing the technology form-factor/scale. The project team plans to mitigate or eliminate GPS false-reads by investigating the use of sensor fusion and dew point collection to improve the fidelity of BVI user location. Haptic algorithms will need to be reworked and optimized for use in a cost-effective, multi-actuator device with a form/factor that presses firmly yet comfortably on the wrist.