Skip to main content

Innovative ‘guide dog’ device uses lidar to help Blind people navigate

What if you’re a person with low vision, but for whatever reason do not have ready access to a guide dog to help you navigate? A final year Industrial Design and Technology student from the U.K.’s Loughborough University may have come up with a solution that could help the more than 253 million such people worldwide — only a small fraction of whom have a service dog. What Anthony Camu has developed is a handheld device called Theia which works like a “handheld robotic guide dog — minus the waggy tail.”

The device, which currently exists only as a work-in-progress prototype, is inspired by driverless car technology. Using bounced laser light system lidar and cameras, the idea is that Theia can sense the world around it and guide people as they walk, helping them avoid accidents and safely reach their destination. Using onboard smarts that allow it to carry out routing, the hope is that a finished version could also keep track of the weather, traffic density, and myriad other factors while being voice controlled by users thanks to A.I.-aided speech recognition. Guidance is given to users by way of haptic feedback.

Theia
Loughborough University

“It’s amazing; the day after I graduated, I was on breakfast TV,” Camu, clearly bowled over by the reaction to Theia, told Digital Trends. “It has been a great experience getting such a positive reaction from the public. It’s also been incredibly encouraging having Blind and Visually Impaired people reach out to me wanting to be in the testing process and hoping the device will be developed.”

Camu said that there “is definitely potential to commercialize the Theia project and I have received commercial interest. Hopefully, this can lead to the device’s development.”

While this isn’t the only innovative high-tech device we’ve covered for Blind users, it’s definitely one worth getting excited about. As it stands today, Theia’s not quite ready for prime time just yet (excessive vibration and breaking motors are listed as two of the current flaws). But once those problems are ironed out, this could be a game-changer for a large number of people who could truly benefit from its advances.

Editors' Recommendations

Luke Dormehl
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
New Lidar tech uses 128 lasers to help self-driving cars see in high resolution
lidar double lasers vls 128 front top light1

When it comes to autonomous vehicles, Lidar is one of the driving forces that make it all possible. A laser-based surveying method, Lidar builds up a depth-based image of the world by shining out laser lights and then measuring how long it takes for the reflected pulse to be bounced back to the sensor.

And thanks to the work of pioneering company Velodyne, Lidar just got a whole lot better.

Read more
Augmented reality glasses could soon help return sight to legally blind people
augmented reality glasses blind 35462225 l

Although this will no doubt change over time as the technology becomes more mature, right now augmented reality (AR) is mainly being used for retail apps and games. Now, we may love shopping and gaming as much as the next person, but a technology as genuinely transformative as AR surely has a few more profoundly life-changing applications hiding up its sleeve. One of those use-cases? Helping people who are legally blind or have otherwise impaired vision to see again.

The project is the work of computer vision scientist Philip Torr and neuroscientist Stephen Hicks, both of whom work at the United Kingdom's University of Oxford. For the past several years, they’ve been developing smart AR glasses, which pick up on visual weaknesses in a person’s eyesight and enhance these details -- allowing individuals to navigate independently, avoid collisions, or see better in dark or low-light conditions. These glasses use a combination of smart computer vision algorithms and cameras to register scenes in front of an individual, and then exaggerate certain details of it -- such as increasing image contrast, highlight specific features, or creating “cartoonish representations of reality” -- depending on the requirements of the user. For example, a person with blurry vision due to glaucoma can have the salience of certain important parts of an image enhanced.

Read more
A blind entrepreneur is going to run a 5K with the help of the Sunu Band
sunu band boston 5k 12244472 509630599218730 1933368684087806735 o

Beginning this weekend, some of the world's finest athletes will descend upon Boston to take part in the city's famous road racing festivities. Among them will be entrepreneur Fernando Albertorio, who by the way, is legally blind. But that won't stop him from participating in one of the races -- thanks to a new device from his company Sunu, Inc., he will be able to run just like anyone else. At least, here's hoping. It all rests upon the effectiveness of the

At least, here's hoping. It all rests upon the effectiveness of the Sunu Band, a sonar smartwatch with haptic feedback that has already won awards for its ability to give visually impaired wearers physical feedback on their surroundings. Sunu claims that the wearable “augments human awareness, perception, and enhances the navigation experience” for those whose vision may not be best.

Read more