Showing the Blind How to Drive at Virginia Tech
Filed Under: Green Technology on August 7, 2009
Virginia Tech undergraduate students have built a car (more like a dune buggy) that lets blind people drive. They’re showing (is that the right word?) them how to do it while they test automatic vehicle controls.
It’s a cool concept that makes a lot of sense if you really think about it. If you want to design vehicles that can literally drive themselves without human input, why not test them by seeing if a blind person can use them?
So far, the semi-autonomous test vehicle has done extremely well in live use. It uses a laser range finder, voice software, various position and proximity sensors, and so forth to keep track of its environment and tell the driver what is going on. It controls some things on its own, like emergency stopping, automatically slowing down for certain events, and so forth.
Blind drivers on a closed course have had great success with the vehicle and the Advocates for the Blind have called the vehicle a breakthrough in independent driving for the visually impaired.
Dennis Hong, director of Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Lab, says they’re not just excited about the car, but also the numerous spinoff technologies that could be had from the research.
The project was begun on a $3,000 grant from the National Federation of the Blind when they issued a challenge to universities to develop a vehicle for the blind. Virginia Tech was the only one to accept the challenge and began work in 2006 on the Blind Driver Challenge.
The whole thing is really cool. If you’d like to know more about how the buggy works, the technologies being tested and developed, and reactions from drivers and researchers, read the great Wired Magazine writeup by Ben Mack by clicking here. See also the official Blind Driver Challenge page at VT at this link.
