STIC - Sensory and Tactile Improved Cane

Abstract

Navigation and obstacle avoidance, especially regarding head-level objects, are of major concern to visually impaired people. This paper describes the advances on the design of an augmented white cane, STIC (Sensory and Tactile Improved Cane), making use of an ultrasonic distance sensor for head-level and a laser-based distance sensor for ground-level obstacle detection. The distance information is encoded via vibrotactile actuators.

Additionally, a novel approach to retain obstacle information with the help of haptic afterimages is presented. Finally, the discriminability of distances based on the vibrotactile feedback was measured via a psychometric study. Objects shiftings by more than 13.58 cm yield a 90\% detection accuracy.