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

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是改善盲人和视力受损者（BVI）的导航效果，根据世界卫生组织（WHO）的估计，全世界约有2.85亿人。定向和流动性（O M）是非常具有挑战性的英属维尔京群岛的人，并被评为他们的两个最重要的压力之一。该公司的目标是将一种有前途的新辅助技术商业化，该技术利用先进的触觉（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性的可穿戴设备，将高清触觉与GPS和嵌入式蓝牙定位硬件相结合，以帮助BVI用户导航到熟悉的和新的目的地。该技术策略克服了其他英属维尔京群岛航点辅助技术的不足，更充分地利用皮肤？的传感能力，并利用嵌入式定位硬件，以提供GPS信号之间的连续导航反馈。公司？的目标是提供一个强大的，触觉导航解决方案的形式因素和价格点，使该技术能够接触到尽可能多的英属维尔京群岛的人，包括先天性和晚期失明的用户，视障人士和法律盲人。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，以改善定向和移动（O M）的结果，为数百万人谁患有失明和视障的可行性。公司？的专有技术是一种新颖的创新策略，它结合了直观的高清触觉、定制的GPS和嵌入式定位硬件，为BVI导航提供了上级实用的解决方案。与利用不直观和/或不复杂的触觉反馈的其他当前可用的触觉导航技术相比，这种新技术结合了向用户提供直观和准确的导航信息的精炼和变化的反馈。通过将GPS与支持蓝牙的嵌入式定位硬件相结合，该策略提供了连续的导航反馈流，而没有任何覆盖范围的间隙。项目？的关键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子/规模。项目团队计划通过调查传感器融合和露点收集的使用来减少或消除GPS错误读数，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，其形状/因素可以牢固但舒适地按压在手腕上。

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.