Buzz
Spotting someone you know often leads to a wave, a smile, a handshake, or even a quick escape. Soon, these reactions could be possible even for those who are visually impaired.
A team of Information and Communications Technology students at Birmingham City University in the UK is working on XploR, a smart cane capable of detecting and identifying faces from a distance of up to 33 feet. The device stores facial images on an internal SD card, and its embedded camera scans and matches faces against the stored data. Using Bluetooth, the cane notifies the user through a speaker or earbuds and vibrates when it recognizes a familiar face. Additionally, the cane features GPS for navigation, providing directions via an earpiece to guide the user toward the identified person.
After consulting with individuals at the Beacon Centre for the Blind in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, the students discovered that users prioritized advanced technological features, along with the cane being lightweight and user-friendly.
The initiative secured funding from the European Regional Development Fund and is a component of the Living Labs initiative for the internationalization of start-ups (LILA), a European program focused on engaging citizens as early adopters in a collaborative process to refine and validate products and services for specific regional markets.
XploR has already been showcased to medical and scientific experts and is set to undergo testing at the Beacon Centre in the near future.
