A new kind of haptic wearable: GPS for the blind
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- čas přidán 21. 06. 2021
- A new kind of wristband is about to enter the wearable tech scene - the first haptic GPS for the blind.
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The Wayband allows the visually impaired to become more independent than ever before. With real-time feedback on their position, direction, and environment, they can more easily explore new areas of their city and break up routines.
Eliminating the need for audio means that even in crowded city centers, the visually impaired have the freedom to find their way around with ease. How does this haptic device work?
When someone wearing the Wayband starts to veer off course, a small vibration helps them get back on track. This creates a “virtual corridor” that helps the wearer stay aligned with their path.
Bringing a wearable GPS for the blind to market has been no small feat, but the New York-based startup behind the band, WearWorks, is tackling the challenge head-on.
See the full article on WearWorks’ haptic GPS for the blind, here: www.freethink.com/shows/ramen...
This video was created in partnership with Million Stories.
Up next- Smart Cane Gives the Blind Freedom to Explore: • Smart Cane Gives the B...
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What was your takeaway from this story?
Never give up nothing beats failure than trial.
You could probably build a worst version of that into your phone.
Blind people have money too.
Being visually impaired myself and a teacher of the blind and visually impaired I am very excited about this product. . .
Capitalism sucks? Visually and audibly impaired people shouldn't have to wait for it to be profitable for them to be included. Just a thought
This would help motorists, private and commercial, to drive safer honestly (not sure if it was already mentioned)
these guys are cool af, they got style too, love this
Srsly, they look like models for some ultra chic brand
Honest opinion from a PhD student working on haptics - the technology is great but not that innovative, and there are a lot of more advanced and full-featured methods of navigation guidance for visually impaired people. But I am truely happy to see such haptic technology is being transformed into commerical product.
We agree. Haptics have been used for decades. The Wayband's application is simple indeed. And in that simplicity is where the innovation lives. For those who are not in the haptic space, a big challenge is around building differentiating signals that can be easily understood without having to learn a new "language". The process of language acquisition is slow, and users may not sit with products for months before they become valuable. So we built something that was so intuitive, a person could pick up a Wayband and "just get it", without any instructions or any prior experience with the device. We speak more about the "language learning" problem in haptics in our TED talk: "Wearable Tech that helps you Navigate with Touch" by our cofounder Keith Kirkland.
Thanks for the comment! And for creating the opportunity to have a more in depth conversation about the nuances and challenges in the space. And if you have any amazing ideas about the haptic future, we'd love to talk. We are a haptic design company. Navigation is the first of our planned explorations of raising the prevalence and quality of haptic communication as an alternative communications channel. If you would enjoy discussing more, or looking for an opportunity to expand your work, feel free to reach out to hello@wear.works
Cheers!
i have a good friend who’s blind and am trying to help him out.. would you mind shedding some light on the advanced devices that you mentioned.. thanks ahead for any help!
I’m looking for a product that could help me. Please help.
If we could have an integration of hardware+software, it would really help. So, having like an audio feedback to guide someone while making use of vibrations will really help too!
Beautiful. "the way to get what you want is to give it to others..."
That is fantastic that they create products to assist the disabled! Perseverance pays off !! 👍👍
@•Pinned By Freethink• goddamn bot scammers, get a job... 🤦💥
A diverse set of founders working on a harware problem for the disabled. Plus they look like classy artists! Kudos to freethink for this story and power to the entrepreneurs!
wtf has diversity to do with anything?
@@MrDutchmarshal were you born yesterday?
my question will be, how do it set a target location and by the way avoid, say puddle of water in the pavement or something even worse? say, a uncover manhole on a drainage construction site on the route. currently a puppy specialize for the leading job seems better, but it is a good start, and the most important, a useable device.
So precious that free-think does not force ads to me when watching your video. It is really nice treat.
Could be used for low visibility operations -> e.g. person wears it where there is low visibility (night time, smoke (firefighting)) and it incorporates information from other sensory assets in the vicinity, to create a dynamic map of where the person's target location is.
I wish them the best!
Recently, I was working on a wearable device that vibrates on my skin based on the distance of objects behind me so that I don't die on my electric scooter. Here, we have two men who are much more experienced than me, admitting their struggle, which makes me not feel like a failure.
Awesome, freethink always makes their videos interesting. ❤️❤️
Hear me out. Two earpieces, two vibrations that directs based on the side of ear that it vibrates. I think it's a much better business idea..
Hello... We thought about that originally. But then we realized we could everything with one device. Reduced manufacturing cost, less complexity connecting to bluetooth connections, and more importantly, much simpler and robust - what if one of them dies before the other, what value would only one serve? And while we see some amazing applications for dual-haptic devices, for the blind and visually impaired market, we wanted to focus on simplicity and robustness, and that was much easier to achieve with a single device. We hope you try one out and get a sense of simple and intuitive the experience is. You can grab one on preorder here. www.wear.works/preorder. And really appreciate the recommendation...
@@keithkirkland2989 better idea: do not use extra hardware. Humans are verry good at locating sounds in 3d space. Just generate a sound in a virtual 3d space. Send it to the users headphones. Done. this is much more intuitive.
@@keithkirkland2989 @Keith Kirkland which tablet you were holding in video 4:37??
What’s that tablet you guys were writing on?
i want to know as well. it seems awesome
My guess would be a "Remarkable" remarkable.com/
@@h2ocombolhas1 remarkable.com
i hope this will go allright, it will help alot of pple
"Simon Wheathcroft.,... becoming the first blind person to run the marathon *unaided,* thanks to Wayband a device that helps you navigate entirely through vibrations on the skin..." So he was aided by technology....
A person who is blind traditionally is tethered to a sighted runner. And there are organization like www.achillesinternational.org that pair sighted runners with runner who are blind or visually impaired. But this literally ties the performance of the two runners together. And when dealing with performance athletes, replacing a running partner can be akin to finding a new life partner. By running "unassisted", we imply running without the need for human assistance, something that is deeply important for freedom and autonomy.
2022: Elon Musk brags about how he founded this company and came up with the idea all by himself... 🙄
The core idea follows driverless cars what Elon has been pushing for decades.
HYPErloop :D
Exactly...I wonder how people would feel about Elon if they know the details of how Elon Musk ended up with Tesla motors which has nothing to do with him in the first place.
No one builds anything with an amazing team of people behind them. The myth of the "lone genius" is challenging because it negates the impact of multiple dynamic contributors necessary to guide an awesome idea into an awesome (and scalable) customer experience. While our cofounders may be the ones in front of the camera, we have amazing advisors, interns, employees and customers who are blind and visually impaired that have been deep contributors to the product and strategy. And we deeply believe that our team ethos is the biggest part of our success as a organization.
To be fair, this concept had already been conceived in 2005.. and commercialised in 2015. So there's not much novelty anyway,
Amazing!! Hoping for their success
Thank you!
Congratulations to the team...
Thanks a bunch. I'll send your congrats to the team...
If its all about vibration, why don't they use phone, it has all the sensors and motors.
We originally built a version that uses only the phone. After testing with our users who are blind, we found out that holding their phone was problematic. They were deeply concerned about the phone being stolen or damaged while in use. Also, the white cane already uses one hand, and holding the device limits the usage of the other hand. For people who buy the Wayband, they will have access to both navigation experiences: Wayband and phone-only. And next year, we will release a phone-only version as a stand alone product. Hope you will follow us and try it out when it's ready.
Very cool!!!
Very cool!
Amazing.
I hope Helium network could help for precise geolocalisation needed
We would love to hear more about the Helium network. Would love it if you could drop a link!
@@keithkirkland2989 czcams.com/video/Vx9YyS7-d3g/video.html
An armband?
A head-device is should have been!
Still, you seem kind and cool 👍🏽
I had an idea the other day about creating a walking stick with laser range filters on it for blind people in braille could even shoot out 5 beams at once and display the different distances to all five fingers at once
I have two blind teenage girls that would love more info please
We would love to chat. Please feel free to connect at hello@wear.works
Love it !!
great idea
Inspiring Invention
I find it curious their products are BS1, BS10, etc.
Hey... That is because the company (when it was first created) was called "Beyond Sight". We eventually changed the name of the company to WearWorks® and the device to Wayband®. One of the reasons we changed it was because often when we said our name was Beyond Sight and everyone thought we were saying "Beyonce". With VoiceOver and audio recognition a big part of our app, so we didn't want people to have to auto-correct Beyonce every time they said the company name. Now we are WearWorks. Also having the initials of BS, while hilarious and quite playful, was not something we thought would be a good idea for the the product we are selling. Thanks for the curiosity...
@@keithkirkland2989 smart. Thanks for explaining. Shows just how much detail and care you have placed into this project.
All the blind people watching this will love it
I'd like to donate 2 of these devices to help the blind as made open source by Shane Wighton of the youtube site Stuff Made Here, one here locally and the other local to the robotics person or group that builds them.
But ideally, we will improve upon Shane's great work and make flexible tactile pads that could be for example 3D printed from nylon or something flexible with a ¨pixel¨ grid to hold the actuators that can also oscillate to provide vibration as well as pressure. We can adhere a small Peltier to the top of each actuator for heat and cold also and this can be encapsulated in silicone gel and connected to the camera wirelessly. The camera should be head-mounted for great control and can be in glasses, in a hat, etc, if not, chest and/or back mounted. The app can be opened to set the preferences of each view pad as if they were visual monitors setting what objects trigger vibration, exaggerated pressure, heat, cold, etc in real time.
These pads can be any size and shape with the ¨pixels¨ programmable in the control interface app and can be adhered directly to the skin like medical support straps or by elastic band.
With this a person can feel great insight of the world around them and with their hands and cell phone free, completely programmable with insight pads that could be worn on the chest or stomach, lower back, wrapped around the upper arm for a 180 screen, on the thighs, on the calves, or even simply wrapped around a comfortable cylinder like what Shane has designed for hand held use.
Do you know anyone blind or visually impaired person that could benefit from this device (and/or the one I've described above) or know someone in robotics that could build these devices (and/or the one I've described above)? We'll coordinate the effort here: www.c8coordinate.com/post/242
We'll create and maintain a list of those in need of a device and a list of those with the ability to produce them. Hopefully we'll also have a list of people wanting to donate one to someone in need in their home towns too.
¨See in complete darkness with touch¨
Stuff Made Here
czcams.com/video/8Au47gnXs0w/video.html
Why wouldn't they just make an earbud gps??
Probably it's more about vibrations, analyzing and re sending to the user, with earbuds the person can hear but not know the intensity of where they are going or something..
With vibration, you can listen to music uninterrupted while using the device. It's a whole new channel of communication.
Indeed, much better position.
Head and ears are much more sensible to vibrations and aligned with your view direction. So many more benefits.
@@michaelwood9380 blind people don't listen to music on the go. They need to have all there other senses available because they can't see.
@@MrDutchmarshal that makes sense. Respectfully though, wouldn't that also be a reason why blind people wouldn't want an earbud gps? Because it limits their ability to take in sound information? WearWorks explains that their vision is to bring haptics to all people, starting with the visually impaired. So, eventually this device and others will be for all people, including those who want to listen to music and navigate at the same time.
this is very smart idea
Apple Watch has this already
lmfao true
Is there any app on Apple Watch that realizes the same function? In terms of hardware, I do believe that Apple Watch can do this.
Or maybe apple watch can do the same thing, but their product is way much cheaper and is specifically designed for blind users
Maybe it'll be like a fitness band, some will choose a dedicated unit (like this) some will choose a smart-watch and others just use their phone (with earbuds or the builtin vibrator)
Apple Watch does let you know when a left or right turn is coming up. This method is effective and simple, but also has its limitations. First you received signals in discreet increments (upon a trigger distance). Also when you walk into a 5 way intersection, "left" or "right" is suddenly not enough information. The Wayband lets you know continuously that you are on the right path. The moment you veer off the path, even slightly and for a moment, you are put back on the path with a haptic communication. This continuous haptic feedback feature, known as the Haptic Corridor, is exclusive to the Wayband and protected with international patents.
there are 2'700 billionares and 56'000'000 millionares in the world, the real problem is how to connect those billionares and millionares with startup companies
So they are removing the dog as partner
The Wayband does not replace the white cane or guide dog. It can not detect obstacles in the path. The navigation challenge for the blind and visually impaired is twofold. First is the micro-navigation challenge: avoiding the person in front of you or the fire hydrant. The second is macro-navigation: finding your way to the post office or the super market. Wayband focuses on macro-navigation and is an additional support to the white cane and guide dog used currently. We also officially advise all Waybanders with a visual impairment to have completed Orientation & Mobility Training before using the Wayband, those skills are essential and we deeply support that ecosystem.
reMarkable tablet!
Freedom costs a buck o’five!
I wish you guys can succeed bat from my opinion the watch it’s wrong but if make something put above you clothes have senser the new car bip when close to another car or wall plus can can describe what it’s like the gages for the blind person the knows the difference from 1 dollars to 5 dollars etc I think if you guys consecrate in this idea help lot people like my wife be intepentent don’t canes good luck I wish you be successful put your product to the market lot people waiting something like this for go round in house ad outside
My wife touch wall for find out where she’s ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
I am not the first view, just saying.
First view. First like first comment. First 🤔
Too bad "Big Brother & Companies" are watching EVERY MOVE you make...🙀
Bit too creepy for me, no thanks!
A minority-owned business for a minority population? Fucking perfect.
BS product, BS commercial video.