CONTENTS Beacons: Remotely Activated Beacon ("Little-Go-Beep") Hands-Free Compass This device acts as a remotely activated auditory marker for a location the blind user wishes to find again. The "Little-Go-Beep" consists of two parts: a small box containing a battery-powered buzzer (which is left at the location the user wishes to find again) and a small, high-frequency (13kHz) whistle. When the whistle is blown, the buzzer is activated for one second and will operate for distances of up to 100 feet. Thirteen kHz was chosen as the operating frequency for the whistle as it is low enough so that it can be picked up by the inexpensive microphone, yet high enough so that the system will not respond to ambient environmental noise. This device can be used whenever the user wants to find a location or object temporarily left. It can be used to relocate seats on public transportation, a beach towel on the beach, a seat in a restaurant, etc. It can also be used to mark bases in "Beep Ball" (a variation of the game of softball played by a large number of blind individuals). Availability Schematics are available from the RERC office. Construction plans and a circuit description appear in the Summer 1982 Smith-Kettlewell Technical File. This is a simple auditory marking device for any location the user wishes to find. The principal difference between this device and the Remotely Activated Beacon is that in this version, the signal box is switched on by the user, causing it to continuously issue periodic bursts of tone. The blind user can place the Simple Beacon at a location he/she wishes to find again and by following its auditory signals, can be guided back to his/her original location. The small, self-contained unit is battery-powered, and the volume, pitch, and rate of bursts can be adjusted by the user to suit specific situations. This device was designed for a worker in a large plant who used it to find his way back to his work station. Another typical example is in a recreational activity; for example, such a device can be mounted behind the hoop for blind basketball players. It has general applications in the area of orientation and has many of the same uses as the Remotely Activated Beacon. Availability Schematics are available from the RERC office. Construction plans and a circuit description appear in the Summer 1982 issue of the Smith-Kettlewell Technical File. Provides the user with hands-free auditory feedback to determine direction and relative degree of deviation from a desired path. The compass is housed in a 3" x 4" x 1-1/2" enclosure. It uses a fluxgate sensor which is mounted inside the enclosure along with electronic circuitry and a loudspeaker. In using the compass, the box is oriented so as to achieve a null in the auditory output. This occurs when the sensitive axis is oriented in a magnetic east-west direction. Rotating the unit in one direction causes a "beep-beep" signal. Rotation in the opposite direction produces a "ding-ding" sound. One end of the compass can be marked so as to assign this end with a particular direction (our unit "beeps" when the marked end approaches north). This device has many applications in the areas of recreation and orientation where veering or turning from a particular direction is not desirable. It aids the user to keep traveling in a straight line in dynamic situations, such as while jogging or running a straight track, mowing the lawn, etc., and at the same time allows his/her hands to be kept free. Other applications include use by blind sailors. The most recent version uses a gimballed sensor which eliminates the problem, common to all magnetic compasses, of holding it level for accurate readings. Availability Schematics are available from the RERC office. A circuit board and construction information are also available from the Rehabilitation Engineering Service at cost. Provides remotely readable signs for use in orientation and navigation by blind pedestrians. The "Talking Signs" concept is a method of making navigational signs and landmarks "readable" by blind and visually impaired persons. A sighted person can best understand the value of such an orientation system if he imagines all street signs, house markers, room numbers, and bus identification signs, etc. to be suddenly removed. Travel through a city or inside a large building would become a frustrating process even for a sighted traveler. To make these signs (taken for granted by the sighted population) available to the blind, the "Talking Signs" concept is to place a miniature, low-power infrared light transmitter at locations where written signs normally appear, both indoors and out. Each light source, invisible to the eye and therefore not intrusive to the sighted population, is modulated with a spoken message (stored on a very small computer memory chip) corresponding to the wording on the sign. Although the light transmits continuously, its message is only heard when a blind pedestrian points his receiver in the general direction of the sign and depresses the "on" button. The receiver speaks the sign's message. To ascertain what street he is on, which corner he is on, which bus is approaching, where the bus stop sign is, which building he is passing, which floor the elevator has reached, where the room number he wants is, and a host of other needed facts, a blind traveler has to ask a sighted person, who knows the information because he can read signs. (Braille signs are not a solution -- since a traveler has to find the braille sign before he can read it.) Talking Signs are useful to the wider population as well; anyone who cannot read will find them useful. Availability The Talking Signs system is produced and marketed by Talking Signs, Inc. of Baton Rouge, LA, telephone 504-344-2812. Current installations include the New York Lighthouse, the San Francisco Powell Street BART/Muni transit station, other Muni intra-city rail platforms, and the new San Francisco Library. Many other installations are planned or under way. For information on current Talking Signs research, contact Bill Crandall, Ph.D.
SECTION IV.
ORIENTATION AND MOBILITY TECHNOLOGY
Simple Beacon
Talking Signs: An Orientation System for Blind PersonsREMOTELY ACTIVATED BEACON
("Little-Go-Beep")SIMPLE BEACON
HANDS-FREE COMPASS
TALKING SIGNS ® : AN ORIENTATION SYSTEM FOR BLIND PERSONS
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