Brief Review of Existing Travel Aids for the Blind
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The White Cane
  Most successful and widely used travel aid to date
  Detect obstacles on the ground, uneven surfaces, holes, steps, and puddles
  Very inexpensive, lightweight, small
  Disadvantages: Limited reach, no protection above waist.
Electronic Travel Aids (ETAs)
  Laser Cane: optical triangulation with 3 laser diodes
  Disadvantage: requires active scanning by user
  Mowat Sensor: one sonar, handheld like flashlight
  Disadvantage: requires active scanning by user
  Common disadvantages of these ETAs:
  user must actively scan environment to detect obstacles
  user must actively “measure” obstacle to circumnavigate.
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  SonicGuide: Mounted on spectacle frames
  One sonar transmitter between spectacle lenses, One receiver on each side
  Audio feedback indicates obstacles
  Disadvantage: acoustic feedback masks environmental cues, no protection from floor-level obstacles, downsteps, etc.
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Last Updated Sunday,October 13,1996 4:11 PM
Johann Borenstein

Send email to: johannb@umich.edu