White Cane Research Articles

Formation of Polyphenol-Denatured Protein Flocs in Alcohol Beverages Sweetened with Refined Cane Sugars

The sporadic appearance of floc from refined, white cane sugars in alcohol beverages remains a technical problem for both beverage manufacturers and sugar refiners. Cane invert sugars mixed with 60% pure alcohol and water increased light scattering by up to ∼1000-fold. Insoluble and soluble starch, fat, inorganic ash, oligosaccharides, Brix, and pH were not involved in the prevailing floc-formation mechanism. Strong polynomial correlations existed between the haze floc and indicator values (IVs) (color at 420 nm pH 9.0/color at pH 4.0-an indirect measure of polyphenolic and flavonoid colorants) (R2 = 0.815) and protein (R2 = 0.819) content of the invert sugars. Ethanol-induced denaturation of the protein exposed hydrophobic polyphenol-binding sites that were further exposed when heated to 80 °C. A tentative mechanism for floc formation was advanced by molecular probing with a haze (floc) active protein and polyphenol as well as polar, nonpolar, and ionic solvents.

Obstacle Detection Display for Visually Impaired: Coding of Direction, Distance, and Height on a Vibrotactile Waist Band

Electronic Travel Aids (ETAs) can potentially increase the safety and comfort of blind users by detecting and displaying obstacles outside the range of the white cane. In a series of experiments we aim to balance the amount of information displayed and the comprehensibility of the information taking into account the risk of information overload. In Experiment 1 we investigate perception of compound signals displayed on a tactile vest while walking. The results confirm that the threat of information overload is clear and present. Tactile coding parameters that are sufficiently discriminable in isolation may not be so in compound signals and while walking and using the white cane. Horizontal tactor location is a strong coding parameter and temporal pattern is the preferred secondary coding parameter. Vertical location is also possible as coding parameter but it requires additional tactors and makes the display hardware more complex and expensive and less user friendly. In Experiment 2 we investigate how we can off-load the tactile modality by mitigating part of the information to an auditory display. Off-loading the tactile modality through auditory presentation is possible, but this is off-loading is limited and may result in a new threat of auditory overload. In addition, taxing the auditory channel may in turn interfere with other auditory cues from the environment. In Experiment 3 we off-load the tactile sense by reducing the amount of displayed information using several filter rules The resulting design was evaluated in Experiment 4 with visually impaired users. Although they acknowledge the potential of the display, the added of the ETA as a whole also depends on its sensor and object recognition capabilities. We recommend to use not more than two coding parameters in a tactile compound message and apply filter rules to reduce the amount of obstacles to be displayed in an obstacle avoidance ETA.

Internet of Things (IOT) Solution for Increasing the Quality of Life of Physically Challenged People

Visually Impaired (VI) people generally face difficulties during their pedestrian commute, when forced on to side-walks cluttered with vendors, animals and other obstacles. No single system can comprehensively cover all of their mobility needs. The proposed system intends to provide smart electronic aid for the VI which is appropriate to complement their white cane using the principles of the IoT. It detects any low-lying obstacles on its course and alerts the user to them and also uses Global Positioning System (GPS) technology which is a component of any smart phone, to pinpoint the VI's location when necessary. A feedback system, which is essentially a simple auditory circuit, which alarms the user of any obstacle, and informs priory designated guardians about the VI's current whereabouts, done by transmitting the coordinates of VI to a registered mobile number fed into an Android Application.

Atomic Force Microscopy of Protein Shells: Virus Capsids and Beyond.

In Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) the probe is a nanometric tip located at the end of a microcantilever which palpates the specimen under study as a blind person uses a white cane. In this way AFM allows obtaining nanometric resolution images of individual protein shells, such as viruses, in liquid milieu. Beyond imaging, AFM also enables the manipulation of single protein cages, and the characterization a variety physicochemical properties able of inducing any measurable mechanical perturbation to the microcantilever that holds the tip. In this chapter we start revising some recipes for adsorbing protein shells on surfaces. Then we describe several AFM approaches to study individual protein cages, ranging from imaging to spectroscopic methodologies devoted to extracting physical information, such as mechanical and electrostatic properties.

The Effect of the Color of a Long Cane Used by Individuals who Are Visually Impaired on the Yielding Behavior of Drivers

Introduction A new market trend offers long canes for individuals with visual impairments in a variety of colors; however, the impact of these colors is unknown to orientation and mobility (O&M) specialists and individuals who are blind or who have low vision. The authors examined the impact of cane color on drivers’ yielding behaviors; also, cane display effectiveness was assessed. Methods At traffic signal–controlled intersections, drivers’ yielding responses (yield–no yield and seconds to crosswalk) were recorded by two raters when a pedestrian presented one of two conditions (display and flagging) with four differently colored long canes (white, black, yellow, and green). Results In trials where the pedestrian used a flagging cane technique, the white cane achieved 290% more yielding than the green cane, 100% more yielding than the yellow cane, and 40% more yielding than the black. Statistical differences were found between the white-with-red cane and the yellow and green canes. The measure of drivers’ latency for moving forward was not statistically different between trials in which a pedestrian displayed a white cane at the crosswalk and trials in which no pedestrians were present. Discussion Cane color appears to have a substantial effect on drivers’ yielding responses. The results also indicate only a slight driver response to a highly visible cane display, confirming the results of previous studies that recommended more potent pedestrian movements to mitigate the threat from turning vehicles. Implications for practitioners O&M specialists and cane travelers need to consider the options for cane color when using a cane to cross streets. A white cane, flagged at the onset of the walk signal, can achieve more desirable responses from drivers than can the long canes of other colors. More effective cane behaviors exhibited by pedestrians who are visually impaired should always be considered by O&M instructors in order to influence drivers.

Examination of a Guidance Robot for Visually Impaired People

We are developing the robot in order to guide visually impaired persons in large hospitals. This paper describes the structure of the robot and the results of a demonstration examination in Kanagawa Rehabilitation Hospital, Japan. The robot navigates to the destination while steering, depending on the force with which the user pushes on the robot. The success rate for reaching a destination with the robot was higher than with a white cane in the testing at Kanagawa Rehabilitation Hospital. We evaluated the traveling time and the participant questionnaire as an endpoint by Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Though there is no advantage in traveling time between use of the white cane and the robot, according to the scores of the participants questionnaire, it was shown that traveling with the robot was better than traveling with the white cane for the participants.

Not Superhero Accessible: The Temporal Stickiness of Disability in Superhero Comics

For this article, I will be examining the relationship between stickiness and visibility in the construction of disability in The Killing Joke, Hawkeye (2012) and Uncanny X-Men, specifically looking at how the practice of retroactive continuity both erases and cements disability. I argue through the use of retroactive continuity that the stickiness of disability in superhero comic books is dependent on visible signs of disability and those without a visible sign (wheelchair, white cane, etc ) are either "cured" of the disability or it is erased via a retcon.

A new primary mobility tool for the visually impaired: A white cane—adaptive mobility device hybrid

ABSTRACTThis article describes pilot testing of an adaptive mobility device-hybrid (AMD-H) combining properties of two primary mobility tools for people who are blind: the long cane and adaptive mobility devices (AMDs). The long cane is the primary mobility tool used by people who are blind and visually impaired for independent and safe mobility and AMDs are adaptive devices that are often lightweight frames approximately body width in lateral dimension that are simply pushed forward to clear the space in front of a person. The prototype cane built for this study had a wing apparatus that could be folded around the shaft of a cane but when unfolded, deployed two wheeled wings 25 cm (9.8 in) to each side of the canetip. This project explored drop-off and obstacle detection for 6 adults with visual impairment using the deployed AMD-H and a standard long cane. The AMD-H improved obstacle detection overall, and was most effective for the smallest obstacles (2 and 6 inch diameter). The AMD-H cut the average drop off threshold from 1.79 inches (4.55 cm) to .96 inches (2.44 cm). All participants showed a decrease in drop off detection threshold and an increase in detection rate (13.9% overall). For drop offs of 1 in (2.54 cm) and 3 in (7.62 cm), all participants showed large improvements with the AMD-H, ranging from 8.4 to 50%. The larger drop offs of 5 in (12.7 cm) and 7 in (17.8 cm) were well detected by both types of canes.

Implementation of RFID in Bus Boarding System for Visually Impaired People

As an engineer we have a social responsibility towards the improvement in our society. So for that reason we design a mechanism to help the blind people for travelling without any assistance by using our devices. Journey in a bus is a safe and comfort factor but navigation in outdoor environment is highly difficult for those who have congenital blindness or blind people. Several solutions have been proposed like walking stick or white cane, guide dogs and GPS guidelines to deal with this difficulty. Although some of them have shown to be useful in real scenarios, they involve an important deployment effort or use artifacts that are not natural for blind users.Therefore, this paper aims to develop a bus detection prototype using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for blind. RFID has the potential to be a useful aid with further standardization of RFID tags and improvement of current RFID readers. Here the system contains the RFID communication technology to communicate blind person with the bus. The two major parts are there. 1. RFID Tag (from bus). 2. RFID Reader (from blind people). Using the two things the blind person freely uses the transport system without any assistance.

Connected cane: Tactile button input for controlling gestures of iOS voiceover embedded in a white cane

ABSTRACTAccessibility of assistive consumer devices is an emerging research area with potential to benefit both users with and without visual impairments. In this article, we discuss the research and evaluation of using a tactile button interface to control an iOS device’s native VoiceOver Gesture navigations (Apple Accessibility, 2014). This research effort identified potential safety and accessibility issues for users trying to interact and control their touchscreen mobile iOS devices while traveling independently. Furthermore, this article discusses the participatory design process in creating a solution that aims to solve issues in utilizing a tactile button interface in a novel device. The overall goal of this study is to enable visually impaired white cane users to access their mobile iOS device’s capabilities navigation aids more safely and efficiently on the go.

視覚障害白杖ユーザにおける白杖を用いた対象の重さ判断

視覚障害白杖ユーザにおける白杖を用いた対象の重さ判断

An Assistive Mobility Device for the Blind: White Guide

Presently, for making human life easier with innovative articles various approaches are being used. Blindness is a characteristic, not a disability or defect. Navigating in an unknown environment poses a great difficulty for the visually challenged people. They are dependent for any type of movement. To overcome this smart product is proposed that can be attached to white cane. White cane will help the user with obstacle detection, real time location tracking of the blind, support intimation in case of emergencies and some voice control features. It consists of various sensors to perceive the environment and give haptic feedbacks. The product connects with an Android application via Bluetooth. The main aim is to provide a reliable, safe, affordable and easy to use navigating tool to ease the lives of visually impaired people.

駅ホームにおける安全歩行を支援するインテリジェント白杖に関する研究

When visually impaired persons use general traffic facilities, they may face a lot of difficulties. Particularly, the accidents on the station platform may result serious injuries. One of the solutions is to install a platform door, which opens only when a train is at the station. However, the cost for the installation is very expensive. Also, if a different railroad companies use the same station, it usually cannot be installed. In this paper, we propose a safe walk support system at the station platform by sensor embedded intelligent white cane. Two functions will be realized by the intelligent white cane. It tells the direction of the platform even though a person lost a direction. It also senses a color on the ground and tells the position of the train door. We conducted experiments with subjects and confirmed the efficiency of the proposed system.

Indoor navigation with smart phone IMU for the visually impaired in university buildings

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to design and test effective indoor navigation solutions for visually impaired people in situations where GPS, bluetooth or Wi-Fi signals are unavailable. The authors use the inertial measurement units (IMU), the compass and the barometer of a smart phone. Design/methodology/approach The authors have used commercial Android smart phones with IMU, compass and barometer to record a path and to give navigation instructions in an adapted way using a mobility-specific vocabulary. The method proposed is to save paths taking into account different indoor waypoints such as the stairs (change from one floor to another) and the change of direction of the trajectory of the path (e.g. one-fourth turn right or left), recording data from the IMU sensor’s, compass and barometer of the smart phone. Having this information and the characteristics of the each segment (distance, azimuth to the north and pressure) of the path, it is possible to provide functional navigation guidance to the visually impaired subject. Three different visually impaired people (one partially sighted and two fully blind) and three sighted people have tested the paths. The efficiency of the navigation is analyzed in terms of distance and time using the comparison between blind and sighted people. Findings The main finding is that it is possible to guide visually impaired people some hundreds of meters just using the sensors of a smart phone under certain conditions: the visually impaired person has to understand the guidance instructions and respect some strategies (e.g. not to walk diagonally across vast spaces). Additionally it is observed that the visually impaired participants walked distances, which are not much different to the optimal values. On the other hand; because of their hesitations using their white cane to find free paths, they take in some cases 50 percent more time to arrive (for a few minutes path, this time is not critical and even more efficient than looking for a guide). One thing to highlight is that even with this hesitation, the subjects arrived to the final destination. Originality/value This paper demonstrates how an IMU coupled to a compass and a barometer from a Smart Phone employing a spoken mobility language (e.g. next corridor to the left; at the end of the stairs turn right, turn left, etc.) can guide visually impaired people inside buildings.

Electroantennogram response and attraction of Anastrepha suspensa to volatiles of various sugar sources and aged sugar solutions

AbstractWith the aim of finding new, sugar‐based volatile attractants for economically important tephritid fruit fly species, we used electroantennography (EAG) to quantitate olfactory responses of female Caribbean fruit fly, Anastrepha suspensa (Loew) (Diptera: Tephritidae), to volatiles of six sugar sources (refined white and brown cane sugar, coconut sugar, date sugar, date jaggery, and cane panela). Laboratory‐strain and wild flies, both sexually immature and mature, were tested for EAG responses to the volatiles of dry crystallized sugar sources and 10% (wt/vol) aqueous solutions that had aged in the laboratory for 0–7 days. In general, wild flies exhibited higher EAG responses than laboratory flies, and immature females responded more strongly than mature females. With the exception of date jaggery and cane panela, volatiles of dry sugar sources and 0‐ and 1‐day‐old solutions elicited lower EAG responses than any of the aged solutions. Most solution volatiles elicited the strongest EAG response after 2 days of aging. Of the treatments evaluated, volatiles of the 5‐day‐old date jaggery solution elicited the highest‐amplitude EAG responses (39%) in A. suspensa females. On the basis of the latter, we tested the attraction response of mature and immature females to date‐jaggery solutions aged over 2 and 4 days in two‐choice flight tunnel bioassays. With both mature and immature females, the 2‐day‐old solution was more attractive than the 4‐day‐old jaggery solution, but significantly more mature females (70% of captures) were attracted to 2‐day‐old jaggery solution. We discuss our results with respect to the improvement of fruit fly lures and attractants by incorporating elements from aged date‐jaggery sugar.

Low Cost GPS and GSM Based Navigational Aid for Visually Impaired People

Mobility for the blind can be defined as the ability to move independently through the environment with ease, speed and safety. With an estimate of 7 million people going blind each year, the numbers of visually impaired people are expected to be double by 2030. This work presents a prototype development of a low cost GPS and GSM based navigational aid device called smart white cane for assisting visually impaired people to navigate easily. This device integrates smart sensors and wireless technologies GPS and GSM to assist the user in safe indoor and outdoor navigation. The major phases of this prototype development are obstacle detection, depth detection, water detection and finding location. A GSM module has been incorporated in this prototype so as to make blind people capable of sending an SOS message to a family member in critical situations. The smart white cane is a small, cheap and easily operated navigation aid for the blind and visually impaired people.

Navigating blind people with walking impairments using a smart walker

Navigation in complex and unknown environments is a major challenge for elderly blind people. Unfortunately, conventional navigation aids such as white canes and guide dogs provide only limited assistance to blind people with walking impairments as they can hardly be combined with a walker, required for walking assistance. Additionally, such navigation aids are constrained to the local vicinity only. We believe that technologies developed in the field of robotics have the potential to assist blind people with walking disabilities in complex navigation tasks as they can provide information about obstacles and reason on both global and local aspects of the environment. The contribution of this article is a smart walker that navigates blind users safely by leveraging recent developments in robotics. Our walker can support the user in two ways, namely by providing information about the vicinity to avoid obstacles and by guiding the user to reach the designated target location. It includes vibro-tactile user interfaces and a controller that takes into account human motion behavior obtained from a user study. In extensive qualitative and quantitative experiments that also involved blind and age-matched participants we demonstrate that our smart walker safely navigates users with limited vision.

Wearable ultrasonic guiding device with white cane for the visually impaired: A preliminary verisimilitude experiment

ABSTRACTSeveral assistive technologies are available to help visually impaired individuals avoid obstructions while walking. Unfortunately, white canes and medical walkers are unable to detect obstacles on the road or react to encumbrances located above the waist. In this study, I adopted the cyber-physical system approach in the development of a cap-connected device to compensate for gaps in detection associated with conventional aids for the visually impaired. I developed a verisimilar, experimental route involving the participation of seven individuals with visual impairment, including straight sections, left turns, right turns, curves, and suspended objects. My aim was to facilitate the collection of information required for the practical use of the device. My findings demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed guiding device in alerting walkers to the presence of some kinds of obstacles from the small number of subjects. That is, it shows promise for future work and research with the proposed device. My findings provide a valuable reference for the further improvement of these devices as well as the establishment of experiments involving the visually impaired.

ULTRSONIC BLIND WALKING STICK FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED

The man kind has been suffering with many diseases and abnormalities. Blindness is one of the disabilities which is very common and difficult to treat. The main motive of this paper is to help the blind people with a good and easy to use blind walking stick that uses a microcontroller to detect obstacles in front of him with many additional features which are quite cost effective. The stick will be meant for the rehabilitation of the blind people. The product is based on the distance measurement property of the ultrasonic sensors. It will measure the distance and velocity of the obstacle in the way of the person and will alarm the person about any obstacle (moving/stationary). The stick will allow detection of obstacles on the ground, holes and pits, uneven surfaces, steps, and other typical obstacles in the path of the person. Since the device is incorporated with wireless module it will be very handy and will be much easier to use as compared to the similar products available in the market. The white cane or stick is mostly preferred by the blind people for walking. But the limitation to the white cane is that the information obtained by the blind user is only by touching the objects by the tip of the cane, which is not completely reliable. Through this proposed paper we offer to give a solution which overcomes the limitations of the ordinary white cane. The ultrasonic blind walking stick is fully automated, comfortable to use and cheap. In other words, it is quite economic over the conventional method.

Co-Robotic Cane: A New Robotic Navigation Aid for the Visually Impaired.

This paper presents a new robotic navigation aid, called Co-Robotic Cane (CRC). The CRC uses a 3D camera for both pose estimation and object recognition in an unknown indoor environment. The 6-DOF pose estimation method determines the CRC's pose change by an egomotion estimation method and the iterative closest point algorithm and reduces the pose integration error by a pose graph optimization algorithm. The pose estimation method does not require any prior knowledge of the environment. The object recognition method detects indoor structures such as stairways, doorways, etc. and objects such as tables, computer monitors, etc. by a Gaussian Mixture Model based pattern recognition method. Some structures/objects (e.g., stairways) can be used as navigational waypoints and the others for obstacle avoidance. The CRC can be used in either robot cane (active) mode or white cane (passive) mode. In the active mode it guides the user by steering itself into the desired direction of travel, while in the passive mode it functions as a computer-vision-enhanced white cane. The CRC is a co-robot. It can detect human intent and use the intent to select a suitable mode automatically.