A Shape-Shifting Gadget Gives the Visually Impared High-Performance Haptic Location Powers
Tests of the Shape, with a 2DoF articulated head, showed "no significant difference in performance" to sighted individuals.
Researchers from Imperial College London and Northumbria University, working with MakeSense Technology and the charity Bravo Victor, have developed a shape-shifting device that they say can help visually-impaired people navigate as well as those with perfect vision: Shape.
"Shape is unusual because it uses our ability to understand information through touch in a way that goes beyond vibration," lead researcher Ad Spiers explains. "Humans have an innate ability to feel and interpret shapes through our hands, with very little concentration. Exploiting this allows us to create a device that is simple to learn and isn't tiring to use. The exciting thing about this study is we've managed to demonstrate that Shape can help people with visual impairment perform a navigation task as well as sighted people. This is something that we haven’t seen before with other navigation devices."
The Shape device itself is a handheld gadget that features a main handle with a two-degrees-of-freedom (DoF) articulating head on which the user rests their thumb, a linear resonant actuator for vibration feedback, three Dynamixel actuators, and three tendon-like pulleys, plus an HTC Vive tracker, which is mounted above the main body of the device.
The gadget is designed, the researchers explain, to "lock-on" to a chosen target or direction in 3D space, then use its articulated head to bend along the target vector — providing natural feedback which allows the user to point Shape in the direction of the target. "By pointing," the team says, "the user 'feels' target directions via proprioception, and the device straightens as it is pointed towards the target; this gesture is found to be well understood even by congenitally blind children."
In trials with 20 participants, half of whom had visual impairment and half of whom were fully sighted, the Shape was used to locate a range of simulated targets — with both sets of participants able to find what they were searching for "with no significant difference in performance." Those using the Shape device, meanwhile, showed a significant speed boost over existing vibration-only haptic feedback devices.
"The impressive results from this study demonstrate the enormous potential of this technology to make life changing improvements in mobility for people with visual impairment," says Robert Quinn, chief executive officer of Make Sense Technology. "Building upon the research described in this paper, MakeSense is developing a blind wayfinding product which leverages the latest advancements in spatial artificial intelligence and computer vision without the need for interpretive training. We are aiming for our first product to be available from the end of 2025."
The team's work has been published in the journal Scientific Reports under open-access terms.