Radiophysicist creates an instrument for visually impaired navigation

Radiophysicist Vitaly Khmelev is developing a device that will help visually impaired people to navigate in space. By 2021, he will create a software and hardware system that will give a person signals about the distance to an obstacle and its size.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that approximately 1.3 billion people live with some form of vision impairment and 36 million people are blind. Most people with visual impairments are in the age group over 50 years old.

Vitaly Khmelev is developing the device under the guidance of Oleg Ponomarev, associate professor at the Faculty of Radiophysics.
- The result of the work will be the software and the layout of the orientation device based on the optical system of the infrared location and the tactile matrix,- said Vitaly Khmelev. - The optical module is fixed on the frame of the glasses, and the tactile matrix capable of exciting the nerve endings is on the human body. The optical system will receive information about an object and the information using the software will be transmitted to a tactile matrix, which will allow you to inform the user about obstacles and distances to them using real-time vibration. The closer the object, the higher will be the intensity of vibration.

Using a high-resolution tactile interface, the user will be able to receive data on several obstacles simultaneously in real time. For example, if there are two objects, the signal will appear at two points of the matrix and go to two skin areas.

The developer assumes that the complex will recognize up to 5 objects simultaneously and identify obstacles at a distance of up to 10 meters. Information will be updated 30 times per second.

According to the radiophysicist, devices for visually impaired navigation now cost from 12,000 to 132,000 rubles, and their radius of the action is about 4 meters. The software and hardware complex developed in Tomsk will surpass modern analogs in terms of the speed of obtaining information, and its cost will be from 30,000 to 50,000 rubles.

The ultimate consumers of the device will be visually impaired and blind people, and branches of the All-Russian Organization of the Blind.

The radiophysicist plans to obtain a patent for the device in 2021.

Provided by Tomsk State University