Researchers at Lough-Borough University designed a hand-held robotic guide that will help visually impaired people to go places and come back entirely on their own.
The device substantially helps in maneuvering through a lidar and a camera system, helping it to build a three-dimensional image of the environment, just like an autonomous car.
Dogs are the best friends to human beings and are helpful in many ways. They are used for security purposes mainly, and most people just love them as their pets. The same is with guide dogs, which are used by blind people as they can take them places and can quickly bring back home.
The concept of using dogs as guides is not for everyone as most people don’t have ample space to keep them. The other reasons for it not being useful for everyone include people having allergies and not having sufficient finances to keep a pet and care for it.
This is where the research from Lough Borough university holds a lot of importance for the visually impaired, the technology under development aims to incorporate the functions of a guide dog into a robotic hand-held device.
The device is named Theia and the concept is inspired by virtual reality gaming and self-driving cars. It uses the control moment gyroscope which is also a part of the spacecraft attitude control system. Gyro-scope enables Theia to provide feedback on where it’s headed and move the user’s hand towards the desired location.
It is friendly to use and is equipped with functions that a blind person will find it easy to operate the device. The desired location can be entered via voice commands while the onboard processors find the best path. It also traces out the real-time data for the traffic and pedestrians on the chosen route.
Theia is still in its prototype phase and is not far away to be produced. Some work is yet to be done for its perfect use for the blind people. The all-new invention will include blind people for going out to restaurants, socializing, shopping, resultingly it will make them self sufficient.