Class: BE209
Group: W4
Members: Gary Chang, Elizabeth Robinson, Chris Mullin, Tim Siropaides,
Terry Huang
Date: December, 2002
Introduction
People who are visually impaired face many difficulties in everyday
life. One such difficulty is moving from place to place, as their
lack of vision prevents them from navigating around obstacles. Without
any assistance, the visually impaired people have no way of knowing if
obstacles of any kind (walls, buildings, poles, etc.) are in their way.
The goal of this experiment is to produce a device that will signal to
the visually impaired how far they are from certain objects. More
specifically, the goal is to build a portable device that can relate distances
from certain obstacles into pitches whose frequencies are proportional
to the distance from the object, and to test the limitations of this device.
To better understand the limitations of the device, a total of five
tests will be performed. Different colors in the world reflect light
differently. The frequency emitted by the device will be compared
for distances from various colored pieces of paper, to determine how color
affects the device. When walking in the real world, a blind person
will not approach everything from straight on (i.e. a 90 degree angle).
Thus, the frequency emitted by the device will be tested at different angles
to determine what effect the angle has on the device. The device
must be usable at all times during both the day and the night, so the frequency
emitted by the device will be measured in a dark room with the help of
a flashlight, to determine if the device is still operational in a dark
environment. These three tests will provide a comprehensive understanding
of the device, but they provide no practical information. The fourth
and final test will be to set up an obstacle course in a small hallway,
and measure the time it takes for blindfolded subjects to walk through
this course, both with and without the device, as well as the number of
obstacles they bump into along the way. With this data, both theoretical
and practical, a conclusion about the real-life implications of this device
can hopefully be made.