Tacit haptic glove helps blind “see”

When you are visually impaired, the lack of one sense could prove to make life more challenging to live, but that doesn’t mean you cannot chase your dreams or become successful in your own right. Still, there are many technologies these days that have made living with a visual impairment much more manageable than say, during the Dark Ages of Europe. Enter the Tacit – a wrist-mounted sonar device that is said to offer haptic feedback for those who are visually-impaired.

Steve Hoefer is the man behind the design and construction of the Tacit, where its glove will rely on a couple of sonar ping sensors to measure distances around its wearer. Information on the relative distance will then be fed back to the user courtesy of a couple of servos that in turn will apply the relevant amount of pressure right to the back of the user’s wrist. In this way, one is able to “see” any potential obstacles and to better judge distances.

An Arduino pro mini will control the Tacit’s sonar sensors, while relaying the relevant feedback to the servos. Powered by a single 9-volt battery, it can’t get any better than that – or can it?

Edwin Kee
Categories: Gadgets, Medical
Tags: glove