Ausion: Innovative Electronic Mobility And Travel Aid Device For The Visually Impaired
Visually impaired people find it difficult to move in surroundings and locate. A new device, Ausion launched by Innovation Hub Technologies focused on developing this first-of-its-kind mobility aid for the visually impaired.
The device is based on echolocate principle and is an innovative electronic mobility and travel aid device for the visually impaired. The device fulfilled the motive of making it easier for visually impaired users to move around indoors and outdoors with confidence and least assistance.
We hope some more excellent innovations like this in coming years from all over the world to make life easier for visually impaired users and those who deal with incurable eye diseases like Retinitis Pigmentosa.
Ausion working
As stated best by Bangalore Mirror in an interview with N Padmanabhan & Vinod Deshmukh CTO and founder, Innovation Hub,
The size of an android phone, albeit a little thicker, the handheld device acts as a nonintrusive that offers electronic navigation. It has two sensors in the front. “It’s to be used the way someone would use a torch in pitch darkness,” he says. “Just like we would point the torch towards the direction we want to walk, similarly, a blind person can point the device towards the direction he wants to walk.” It’s got four switches on the top to operate. There’s a earphone jack on the other side for feedback. Two switches are for volume control, another for auxiliary, while the last switch is the main switch to turn it on and off and also set the range (a maximum of 10 metres). It alerts the blind person of any obstacle in the radius of one metre, and also prompts whether it is 25 cms away or 50 cms away. “The messages are coded as musical notes and the blind person only needs to get trained on how the device works. We wanted it to be simple and easy to use,” Deshmukh says.
Image Source: Innovation Hub
Here are some interesting things about the device,
- To develop the device both of them worked closely with The National Association for the Blind.
- Interacted with a lot of blind schools, trainers and motivators in the process.
- Over 30 blind people who have tested the device gave positive feedback.
- The device alerts the blind person of any obstacle in the radius of one metre, and also prompts whether it is 25 cms away or 50 cms away.
