Blind

Self-driving cars already utilize cameras to avoid collisions with other vehicles or pedestrians. Well, the biped wearable device applies that same principle to guiding the blind as they walk along city streets.

Manufactured by Austrian startup Tec-Innovation, the InnoMake shoe uses ultrasound sensors to warn blind users of obstacles in their path. The footwear may soon become even more capable, though, thanks to integrated cameras.

Autonomous vehicles and robots navigate with sensors and cameras – but visually-impaired people still get by with canes and guide dogs. Now, engineers have developed a wearable AI system that tracks obstacles and describes a person’s surroundings.

A technology under development at Loughborough University offers up an interesting new possibility when it comes to mobility aids for the visually impaired, by channeling the functions of a guide dog into a robotic device you can hold in your hand.

For people who rely on Braille, reading displays and signs in public can be a challenge, but a new system could help. HaptiRead is a haptic feedback device that uses ultrasound pulses in precise patterns to reproduce Braille text in midair.

The Macaron​ is a clever measuring tape dreamt up by students from the Queensland University of Technology. Described as a universal smart tape measure, it was inspired by one of the team members who is vision impaired and struck some difficulties renovating his house.

According to ELIA Life Technology, less than one percent of visually-impaired people can read braille. It's quite difficult to master, with users reportedly taking up to 10 months to learn the alphabet. The company's new ELIA Frames system, however, can apparently be learned in just three hours.

Sydney's Ben Felten will go for a motorcycle land speed record this weekend in South Australia, aboard a Kawasaki ZX-10R. Since he's completely blind, he'll be taking instructions from an ex-MotoGP rider over a radio. The target? Over 156 miles per hour, or 251 kmh.

​Although you may not realize it, there are car-racing video games that blind people can play. Brian A. Smith, however, thinks they leave something to be desired. That's why he created the RAD, an audio-based interface that he claims can be integrated into almost any racing game.

To address declining braille literacy rates amongst the blind and visually impaired, a team from the Harvard Innovations Lab has devised an innovative system that allows someone to independently learn braille without the guiding hand of a trained teacher.​

A short-range radar wearable being developed by the VTT Technical Research Center of Finland could soon be guiding the visually impaired through their outdoor activities. VTT’s Guidesense is a chest-worn monitor that alerts the wearer of potential obstacles through vibrations and voice feedback.

​The ancient Egyptian god Horus lost his eye in a fight, before having it restored. A symbol of restoration, it's the perfect name for a new wearable device for visually-impaired people, which describes a user’s surroundings to help them avoid obstacles, recognize faces and objects, and read text.