GUELPH, ONT. - An engineering professor in Ontario has invented a glove to help people who are blind to feel their way around. The device includes a 3-D camera that is strapped to the person's chest and sends pictures to a computer. The computer then sends signals to the glove, which produces different impulses as a warning.
Prototype glove |
The glove tells its user where obstacles are. Marty Cutting has been blind since birth and has used the new guide.
"It felt really comfortable," said Cutting. He said the glove wasn't cumbersome, and he got some good information out it, such as whether obstacles were to his right or left.
Glove may reinforce mobility cane
University of Guelph engineering Prof. John Zelek invented the seeing eye glove, the first of its kind. Most aids for the blind are sound stimulated, but the glove relies on tactile information – seeing by touch.
"Rather than seeing by the photo receptors in our eyes being stimulated, we're seeing the world by the nerve receptors in our hand being stimulated," Zelek said.
Marty Cutting is pleased with the glove's performance |
As with all new inventions, the aid isn't foolproof. The glove works well on flat surfaces, but it has a hard time capturing changes in terrain, such as hills or staircases.
The Canadian Institute for the Blind is helping to pay for the project.
"I think if someone will be using their mobility cane to travel plus the glove, then the information picked up by the glove will help reinforce what the cane is picking up," said Kate Harvey of the CNIB.
A group of CNIB volunteers will test the glove starting in September.
