March 12th, 2012 
admin LE CHAL : a haptic shoe for blind to help them navigate & walk
by Farasbee
The blind and visually impaired do have one huge disadvantage – they are unable to see just where they are going without help from a walking cane. Within just the past few years, scientists have developed an impressive number of experimental systems designed to help the blind navigate city streets. These have included devices that mount on the wrist, are incorporated into glasses, are worn as a vest, and that augment a traditional white cane. but thanks to the advent of modern technology as well as the hard work of Anirudh Sharma, Ducere Technologies , he managed to cobble together this pair of Le Chal shoes. Fusing art, design and technology into a pair of walking devices, the Le Chal intends to create interactive physical experiences.
Anirudh Sharma’s system is called Le Chal, which is Hindi for “Take Me There.” It is intended primarily to assist users in finding their way to specific geographical locations, although it also helps them avoid walking into things on their way there. Sharma designed the first prototype in January, while attending MIT’s Design and Innovation workshop in the Indian city of Pune.
The basic idea behind Le Chal is that one of the user’s shoes will provide haptic feedback, guiding the user toward their destination by vibrating in the front, back, or on either side – a vibration on the front indicates that they should keep going straight, a vibration on the left side means that they should turn left, and so on.
The user begins by entering their destination on Google Maps, using their Le Chal-app-running Android smartphone. That phone then communicates by Bluetooth with a LilyPad Arduino circuit board, located in the heel of the shoe. Following the Google-supplied turn-by-turn directions, along with locational data from its own GPS unit, the phone gets the Arduino to activate each of the shoe’s four vibrators as needed. The vibrations start out low, but build in intensity as the user nears points where they have to turn.
A proximity sensor in the front of the shoe also alerts the user to obstacles, which it can detect from up to ten feet (three meters) away & this is how this shoe will work and help blinds to make their own path.
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I’m not entirely sure what the advantage would be over a regular white cane and a GPS app. Am I missing something? An immediate flaw in the system seems to be that there’s no way to determine whether the potential obstacle is, for example, a tree (you should walk around it) or a set of stairs (you might want to take them). Of course, if you’re using these to supplement a white cane, what’s the advantage over existing sonar or other augmentation equipment? I’m curious.
Hi Chris, We have asked the creator of LE CHAL, Anirudh Sharma to reply to your question, he would do that shortly! Thanks – Farasbee Team
Chris,
The motive of the idea is not to replace the white cane but to add an extra directional sense for the visually impaired. Infact, white cane is important not only to the blind, but other commuters too- seeing a person with white can would make us cautious when walking/driving by them.
I’d say advantages of the good old white cane, and what we’ve proposed here, are different.
- Right, technically we’ve a way to figure out the proximity of obstacles from within the shoe, but we’re still experimenting with it. Could be a part at a later stage.
- a GPS phone would require blind people to constantly listen to VoiceOver, which requires them to use their inherent sense of hearing while walking. Doing so in my opinion is not a good idea. (I dont see how you’d use sonar etc. to give a navigational feedback. Guess, probably you missed the point stated here http://goo.gl/ZOA4I )
Just a clarification on the obstacle sensors. Wouldnt the sensor provide confusing feeback during toe off (because the sensor is pointing into the ground) and also as the cane arcs past the front of the feet?