The other day at Habré was discussed the news about the creation of a prototype of the device, a baseball cap for blind people. Since I have been working on this problem for almost a year and wrote a diploma on this topic, I would like to offer my view on solving the problem of people with disabilities. The article will be of interest not only IT professionals, but also entrepreneurs, as well as people interested in the problem of disability.


The first idea of ​​creating an instrument came to me when the institute began to study microcontrollers. Incredibly, I wanted to stop coding examples with LEDs, PWMs, and other microcontroller initialization, but to do something cool and useful, in real life. I decided to put myself on a car-made parking sensors, built it into the front bumper (it was already behind, and in the conditions of Moscow, it is often useful). I assembled a circuit on my knee on the Arduino mini, played around, quenched my thirst.

Concept and prototype

By nature, I am an entrepreneur, I already had a successful experience in creating and selling socially oriented web projects (including cooperation with Yandex). Just a few days later, an idea was born in my head on the commercialization and mass production of my PDC, but in a completely different application - in the field of helping people with disabilities.

In a few days I assembled the first prototype, using the mini version of my favorite arduino. He did not look very good, but it was quite sufficient for the first field trials on real blind people.

And in the "assembled" form:


For more serious tests, a second prototype was created, in a hard case and already with a battery:

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Test results

Tests on the blind have been very successful. I saw such frank joy and delight that overwhelmed people with disabilities only in young children at the age of a kindergarten who were presented with a “best in the world” gift for a holiday. One young disabled guy put the device on and just ran away with him while we were discussing the usefulness of the invention =) We found it on another street, across the road from the original location. The guy really liked the device, for the first time in his life he felt what it means to move on the street himself, without assistance, and even without a cane. It is difficult for us who see it, but it is probably similar to a long but miraculous recovery of people after an injury that deprived them of the ability to walk and feel like a full-fledged person. Also, the device showed itself perfectly when tested on the elderly people. One 80-year-old old woman calmly moved in a couple of minutes around the premises of the society of the blind (this is about the issue of learning).
It was decided to continue development, besides, a promising thesis began to emerge.

Competitors

For a couple of weeks, I studied Runet and the foreign part of the network and found out (as well as the author of the article about the baseball cap) that there are basically prototypes of similar devices in the world ( one , two , three ), and just a few realized options that differ in a rather high price ( four £ 300, five - £ 635). I heard about such developments in the Soviet Union and in Russia, but I could not find anything. All found concepts used various types of communication with the disabled person, but mainly through sound.

Technical part

Then began the hard work on the study of ways of communication and human exposure.

And a comparison of the found methods of signaling in conditions of limited capabilities of a blind person. The guys from the Department of Neuropsychology at Moscow State University enlightened me on the pros and cons of this or that way of signaling, advised the necessary literature. He studied in detail a dozen books on psychology, bionics, research on the blind, and also animals (especially on dolphins and bats), watched several feature films (I advise everyone on the film about a blind musician of all times and peoples Ray Charles). When I was in Germany and France at the presentation of the device, I walked around the city with a blindfold and prototype of the device, which aroused keen interest and delight among the public =)
As a result, I came to the conclusion that it is more appropriate to use tactile feedback and “not to score” the auditory canal, since Blind people orient themselves mainly by hearing, capturing the echo from the bottom of his heels and thus assessing distances in the surrounding world. In addition, the feedback of the human body to an external stimulus is the fastest when using exactly tactile channels (the slowest way, oddly enough, through vision). We will use vibration as an impact. Although there were other options that did not fit due to the peculiarities of the human psyche. For example, a person quickly gets used to a constant external monotonous effect, - to a slight pressure or compression on parts of the body. As well as to the constant monotonous loud sound (we all know how to fall asleep in airplanes or the bus, ceasing to hear the noise of the motor). The so-called adaptation to external noise.

In the meantime, e-filling was selected. This will be a home-made board (since the Arduino takes up a lot of space), sensors (ultrasound + infrared) and a battery:


On the atmega88 board (or atmega168 as on arduino), a set of mikruh for charging the battery and controlling the electric motor, a pulse voltage converter, a sound squeaker and so on. The whole thing was calculated and tested with oscillographs, etc. (right up to the justification of the choice of transistors), thesis work =) Ordered at a factory in China, cheap and very high in quality. The board is two-sided, size 24x48mm, SMD components (size 0603), indents between tracks in some places 0.15 mm. For the quality of soldering tomatoes do not throw, for the first time soldered such a trifle, without a normal station and with terrible solder:


Then the body concept was created:

Koprus is attached to the hand on the strap, in the wrist (back of the hand). The silver tablet on the strap below is a vibromotor, for communicating the device with a person. On the case there are a couple of buttons (on-off, near-far modes), a jack for a plug from the power supply unit for battery damage. And of course, two lovely eyes, almost a hero from the touching cartoon Valli =)

The first real prototype printed on a 3D printer turned out to be a bit worse than the concept, but everything has its time:

Characteristics of the developed device and principle of operation

The device is worn on the arm, on the principle of an ordinary flashlight. Having found an obstacle, Electrosonar delivers a vibration signal of different intensity and duration (depending on the distance to the obstacle). Directing the device in different directions, you can get a clear picture of the surrounding obstacles, such as curbs, steps, walls. There are several modes of operation, both for small, enclosed spaces (flat), and for use in an open, "street" space.

• Obstacle detection range - up to 7 meters;
• Weight - less than 150 grams;
• Size - no more than 7x7x3.5 centimeters (LxWxH);
• Battery life - more than 4 hours;
• Temperature mode of operation - up to -30 degrees;
• Food - from the built-in battery, charger included.

Participation in exhibitions, international travel, dating

I managed to take part in the exhibition near Moscow, met with the former regional governor, B. Gromov, and even awarded him some diplomas.

And as noted above, I visited Germany, in Frankfurt, they have a cool museum, where everyone can feel blind for a couple of hours, think about the difficulties of living in the dark, wander through the mazes and even visit a "blind" dinner.

A very cool way to spend one of the free weekend for the whole family, which contributes to the understanding that there are other people around you, with disabilities, with a completely different lifestyle and habits. It is a pity this is still not in Russia. The director of the museum, by the way, is blind.
Also was in France, in Strasbourg. The first questions were, oddly enough, about safety and contraindications (if people would not be allergic to the material of which the device consists, etc.). At the same time, neither in Frankfurt nor in Strasbourg had they yet seen such devices, which for me was a great surprise.
Relations with the main Moscow branch of the blind were pretty cool from the very beginning. "This is already there, you have not invented anything interesting, we have long known about such devices." However, even in the Moscow region branches of the society of the blind, the device turned out to be a discovery for everyone.

The economic part, commercialization and difficulties

Successfully defended a diploma (MISiS), began to think about how to bring the device to the series. Economic calculations have shown that the cost of the device is about 1,700 rubles. apiece, which in general is excellent performance, compared with competitors. He appealed to several large enterprises (Noginsk ZAO NPTs Pribor and Moscow OJSC Radio Concern Vega). Everywhere I was very warmly received, everyone became interested and started working with me. But to date, there are still no results. In the first case, there was no special initiative, all actions were expected of me, a freshly let out engineer, without experience and practice of organizing production. In the second concern think a couple of months. The only ones most interested at the moment are business youth entrepreneurs.

In the course of the work, I realized that it was very difficult for one such project to pull on itself. Starting production turned out to be a difficult question; there are a lot of pitfalls, for example, with patenting, certification, sales and distribution, warranty-repair-return. In addition, I have already spent a decent amount of my own funds on the entire project (thanks to previous projects that created some kind of financial pillow), which tend to end =)
Over time, there are also difficulties - I am preparing for passing the international exam in English and entering the European Master / Postgraduate School. In parallel, I am leading another project, which, unlike the device, makes a profit in the short term, and somehow with its help I close the appetite of the voracious device =)

Results

As a result, the device turned out to be simple, cheap and compact, while being an excellent assistant to a disabled person. Although not without flaws, they said to me on a diploma like this: “The disadvantage of this device is simplicity. What, on the other hand, is its main competitive advantage. ” And while the doubters are discussing the shortcomings of the presented “nagging”, comparing this method with complex systems of video image recognition, devices based on Microsoft kinect ( kinect for the blind ), or with implantable chips, people with disabilities are delighted in the meantime (more than a dozen requests for the soonest possible purchase of the device, without any advertising at all). Understand the main thing, modern disabled people do not even have such an opportunity to have at least an elementary idea of ​​the surrounding space at a distance greater than the length of the cane.

To date, the project is in a semi-frozen state. For mass production, some technical modifications are necessary (especially the case, the designer and the designer from me not so). Therefore, I am looking for any help and like-minded people. Both technically and organizationally, in commercialization.
There are thoughts to go to the Chinese, to offer them my development and to establish joint production entirely with them (and not just the boards, as they are now). Then the device will cost a penny altogether. But for now these are only thoughts.
UPD: A simple site already exists and was: sites.google.com/site/electrosonarru

Thank you to the distinguished community for your attention. I will be glad to hear any ideas, tips, suggestions and recommendations.