A car for the blind: Virginia students have done it!!

Imagine a car that is driven by blind people. Ummm quite scary as it sounds, because if you are in the passenger seat and your chauffeur is a physically disabled person, well you take some consideration if he is a dumb, but blind! O my god, you will have to pray to god or bite all your teeth all along the journey until you reach the destination. So as you will know a new car is arriving in the near future which is going to be driven by the blind people. It is from the Americans.

The National Federation of the Blind and Virginia Tech planned to demonstrate a prototype vehicle next year equipped with technology that helps a blind person drive a car independently. The technology, called “Non Visual interfaces”, uses sensors to let a blind driver maneuver a car based on information transmitted to him about his surroundings: whether another car or object is nearby, in front of him or in a neighboring lane.

It is said to be as adventurous as the mankind making first step on the moon!

The vehicle from Virginia Tech’s 2007 team has won third place in DARPA Grand Challenge, a competition for driverless vehicles. Following their success, Virginia Tech’s team responded to a challenge from the National Federation of the Blind to help build a car that could be driven by a blind person. They first created a dune buggy as part of a feasibility study that used sensor lasers and cameras to act as the eyes of the vehicle. A vest which has to be used by the driver is the input device which directs the driver to speed up, slow down or make turns by means of vibration as like as your cellphone. Also vibrating gloves or streams of compressed air directed towards the driver are among the options for communicating the information needed to avoid collisions and reach a destination.

The blind organization was impressed by the results and urged the researchers to keep pushing. The results will be demonstrated next year on a modified Ford Escape sport utility vehicle.

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