Hokies give (tactile) sight to the blind so they can drive, no word on turn`g water into wine
Daytona International Speedway`s synonymous w/ speed, auto racing, & . . . blind people? Virginia Tech’s Robotics & Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) , along w/ the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), recently debuted its sight-optional & street-legal SUV @ the famed racetrack. Dr. Dennis Hong & his students 1st let blind folks drive the dune buggy without the help of the sighted copilot in 2009 — as the 1st step to achiev`g the goal of the street-legal SUV 4 the sightless crowd . The SUV in question`s designed 4 the NFB’s Blind Driver Challenge, and`s equipped w/ the drive-by-wire system — also seen in the RoMeLa autonomous vehicle — Z`s modified 4 use w/ RoMeLa’s SpeedStrip & DriveGrip tactile interface technology. It works by us`g the laser rangefinder to map the surround`g area, relay`g information 4 acceleration & brak`g to the driver by rumbl`g the SpeedStrip seat, & pass`g along turn`g info through vibrations in the DriveGrip gloves. The system`s not developed solely 4 the purpose of gett`g blind drivers on the road, however, as Virginia Tech suggests Z its technology could also B used in gam`g applications. We’re not quite ready to C blind drivers on actual roads just yet, although (unless) why shouldn’t our sight-impaired friends get to enjoy Gran Turismo 5 w/ the rest of us
Read more from the original source:
- Droid X upgrade to Android 2.2 leaks out
- Source R&D ships Wisair-based Warpia Easy Dock wireless dock`g station
- BlindType acquired by Google, Android typists grin uncontrollably
- Apple attempts to patent the smarter camera flash
- Hammacher Schlemmer’s tablet-controlled ‘Emotive Robotic Avatar’ captures your heart, nest egg
- Seagate tosses 3TB hard drives into BlackArmor NAS, stores the digital boatload
- NVIDIA lists unannounced GTX 580 graphics card on its page, quickly puts it back in hiding