Haptic Hat for Visually Impaired

The blind and the visually impaired are in a unique position to appreciate and make functional use of haptic devices. Designing devices for the blind is, however, more arduous than many researchers and inventors expect. It is thus important to fully understand the needs and requirements of that community before attempting to create devices for them. It is also important to learn from past research and development in the application of technology for the blind. The ultrasonic haptic vision system enables a person to navigate hallways and around large objects without sight, through the use of an ultrasonic rangefinder that haptically interfaces with the user via tiny vibrating motors mounted on the users head [5]. The idea behind this project was to construct a sixth sensory system that interacts with the body in an intuitive and user friendly fashion and enables the user to navigate without vision. The rangefinder rotated on a motor atop the hat in order to take the sensory data at discrete points around the user. The helmet and required hardware is all battery powered so that it is totally mobile and can be used as intended, so that movement is not restricted by the length of wires. GSM and GPS technology is used for accident detection