The $60 device developed at Wake Forest University to help blind people navigate obstacles may succeed as a commercial product or be forgotten, but it’s a reminder that thousands of innovations are emerging from college classrooms and labs around the country.
The sonar device came about in the past four months as part of an effort on the private Winston-Salem campus to develop socially useful technology. It started with biology professor Bill Conner, who studies how bats call out into their surroundings and then listen for the echoes to identify objects. Conner also teaches about how animals and plants can inspire the design of new technologies.
He talked with computer science professor Paul Pauca, whose 9-year-old son has a rare genetic disorder which limits his language development. Pauca is always looking to find ways to use technology to help people with disabilities, and to make those devices cheaply enough that they can reach those in developing countries who need it.
“I’m interested in solutions that we can produce now, with current technology and highly affordable,” Pauca said.
So, three students taking a technology development course this fall tackled the assignment. They developed a device worn like a watch that shoots out sound waves which bounce off objects ahead and to the side of the sightless wearer that are then collected by sensors on the wrist-band. Vibrations generated by parts taken from cellphones grow more frequent the closer the person gets to the obstacle.
The prototype of the seeing-eye sonar device was built for about $60, said Jack Janes, 22, of Midlothian, Virginia, a computer science student on the team.
