BRIDGE
Invention Design I
BRIDGE is an assistance system for visually impaired people. The glasses are equipped with different sensors to detect the user's field of vision and support him with navigation aids and warnings of obstacles at an early stage. The glasses are controlled via capacitive surfaces on the side. BRIDGE communicates with its user via bone conduction headphones and projections into the glass, which helps the user to avoid obstacles even in shadows.
Early on in the project we were confronted with the problem the general use of technology in daily life is more and more moving away from haptic user interfaces and the trend is moving towards touch screens.
As a consequence our feeling for fine structures on different surfaces is being lost piece by piece. In order to counteract this, we started early in the semester to deal with haptic displays, such as the Audi haptic Touch or Micro Fluid Displays. Their potential for application areas is extremely large. From vehicle interiors to smartphones and UI's on devices of the Red Cross.
Everywhere there is potential for improvement in terms of haptic interaction on displays. But we put our focus on products for the visually impaired people that exist on the market.
A lot of information, some of it very private, is read aloud on conventional smartphones for blind people.
The device reads out loud numbers and characters that are touched on the smartphone. The input must then be confirmed before the number or character is accepted by the device.
This not only prolongs the interaction but also puts privacy at risk as pins are also entered in this way. Assistant programs that recognize banknotes and colors are available but are also read aloud, which requires that they are placed in front of the camera lens of the smartphone.
In order to better understand the user, we have researched the most common visual diseases. Afterwards we built a pair of glasses which, based on the description of the clinical picture, consist of ski goggles, foil, gaff tape and felt pen.
Since many of the technologies required for Bridge are not yet mature enough to build a working prototype, we decided to illustrate the concept with a wooden model and various use case videos.
BRIDGE is an assistance system for visually impaired people.
The glasses are equipped with different sensors to detect the user's field of vision and support him with navigation aids and warnings of obstacles at an early stage. The glasses are controlled via capacitive surfaces on the side.
BRIDGE communicates with its user via bone conduction headphones and projections into the glass, which helps the user to avoid obstacles even in shadows.
Bone conduction headphones are built into the temple of the glasses.
They are ideal for this application, since the ears of the user must remain free, so he can still hear his surroundings. As a result, every signal is transmitted directly to the inner ear via slight vibration on the skull, which is preserving the user's privacy.
BRIDGE uses the depth camera coupled with an AI to detect and classify objects. This enables us to use text and image recognition software. The glasses can therefore read texts and describe images to the user via the bone conduction headphones.
Due to the size of the bone sound headphones you gain an enormous area on the side of the glasses.
We used this area by applying capacitive conductivity to add the ability to control the Glasses with touch gestures on the side.
Use Case: Take a Walk - No Simulation
This video shows the Use Case as the user of the glasses walks down a street.
This video serves as a reference for the Simulated Usecase.
Use Case: Take a Walk - AMD Simulated
This video shows the Use Case on the street but this time we simulate the age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Use Case:Magazin - No Simulation
This video shows the Use Case how the user selects a magazine and then has pictures described and texts read out to him.
This video serves as a reference for the Simulated Usecase.
Use Case: Magazin - AMD Simulation
This video shows the same usecase again but this time we simulated age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
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