Smart cane to help the blind ‘see’

By Shantini Suntharajah

Prof Mahmoud Moghavvemi of the Applied Electronics Research Centre at Universiti Malaya, with some assistance from his students, has developed a gadget aimed at facilitating the movement of visually impaired people. It is officially called The Comprehensive Electronic Travel Aid For The Visually Impaired but is often referred to simply as the “smart cane”.

The “smart” portion of the cane is based on ultrasound technology. The smart cane uses “bat technology” by constantly sending out ultrasound signals. Sound can travel 330m per second so the electronic circuitry in the cane can calculate how many seconds or milliseconds it takes for the signal to bounce back.

Read the rest of the article at thestar.com.my.

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