Bangalore-Based Engineer Invents Haptic Shoe to Guide the Blind

Bangalore: We are blessed with eyes, through which we can view the beautiful world, but can we feel the pain of the unfortunate ones, who are visually impaired? Well, the world can be pretty difficult for them when they have lack of ability to see. But to help those people, a 24 years young lad Anirudh Sharma came out with his great invention to help such people. Anirudh and and some students at College of Engineering in Pune, India, (COEP) have been working hard to construct a Haptic navigation system for the blind. Sharma made his debut of the Haptic (sense of touch) feedback shoe design during an MIT Media Lab Workshop hosted at COEP. During the workshop Anirudh created the first prototype of the Haptic shoe and showcased it to the delegates. The shoe was instantly named 'Le Chal' or 'Take Me There'.
anirudh
According to him this aid is not like other existing aids that are vailable in the market for people with limited or no vision. The Haptic shoe is simple and unobtrusive in design, uses low-cost readily available components, and provides tactile feedback to assist the visually impaired in their day-to-day outdoor navigation tasks.