Blind Can Take Wheel with Vehicle Designed by Virginia Tech College Engineering Team

Blind Can Take Wheel with Vehicle Designed by Virginia Tech College Engineering Team

Posted on Jul.23, 2009, by , under Educational, Innovations for Visually Impaired, Inspirational Stories

drive

BLACKSBURG, Va., July 15, 2009 — A student team in the Virginia Tech College of Engineering is providing the blind with an opportunity many never thought possible: The opportunity to drive.

A retrofitted four-wheel dirt buggy developed by the Blind Driver Challenge team from Virginia Tech’s Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory uses laser range finders, an instant voice command interface and a host of other innovative, cutting-edge technology to guide blind drivers as they steer, brake, and accelerate. Although in the early testing stage, the National Federation of the Blind — which spurred the project — considers the vehicle a major breakthrough for independent living of the visually impaired.

“It was great!” said Wes Majerus, of Baltimore, the first blind person to drive the buggy on a closed course at the Virginia Tech campus earlier this summer. Majerus is an access technology specialist with the National Federation of the Blind’s Jernigan Institute in Baltimore, a research and training institute dedicated to developing technologies and services to help the blind achieve independence.

Majerus called his drive a liberating experience, adding that he drove before on Nebraska farm roads with his father as a guide in the passenger seat….

Source for complete article: http://www.vtnews.vt.edu/story.php?relyear=2009&itemno=542