Toyota BLAID: a wearable device of the future for the blind. Free Technical Library News

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Toyota BLAID: the wearable device of the future for the blind

10.03.2016

For visually impaired and completely blind people, Toyota plans to release a special wearable device designed to make life easier for them. The novelty is being developed as part of the BLAID project. Traditional walking sticks, trained guide dogs and GPS navigators are not always able to provide enough information about the environment. The new device, according to the developers, will make it easier for the blind to navigate in space, especially in enclosed spaces, such as office centers, shopping malls, and will help identify doors, escalators, stairs and various obstacles.

The novelty is an arc worn around the neck. The device is equipped with cameras that, using special software, recognize surrounding objects, including signs on doors and stores. The user receives information thanks to the speakers and vibration motors. You can use voice commands and buttons to communicate with the device. The BLAID project provides for the integration of mapping technologies, object identification and face recognition.

The manufacturer has already created an early working sample that is being tested by a blind person. The shape of the device may be really convenient, but it will be of interest only in the case of a really high-quality implementation of recognition technologies.

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Call across the stratosphere 19.09.2002

The American firm Space Data Corporation offered the National Weather Service a mutually beneficial cooperation.

Every day, meteorologists launch 30 balloons with meteorological instruments into the stratosphere, to a height of up to 140 kilometers. If scientists allow cellular communication equipment to be attached to their probes, the company will provide them with an accurate minute-by-minute determination of the coordinates of each ball using a satellite navigation system, which will significantly increase the reliability of forecasts. And residents of sparsely populated and hard-to-reach areas, especially mountainous areas where radio waves are blocked by mountains and gorges, will receive reliable mobile communications. One balloon will serve an area of 100 square miles (one tower with a base station - 000-100 square miles).

The company undertakes to supply about 300 balloons with its equipment (the kit will cost about $51) annually, since most often the load of the cylinder is irretrievably lost after the probe bursts in the upper atmosphere. Moreover, the entire payload, including meteorological instruments with a telemetry transmitter, should not exceed 2,7 kilograms, which is considered safe in the event of a ball collision with an aircraft.

If the project is approved by the meteorological service, the first experiments will begin this year.

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