01 July 2014
Samar Al-Nuzaili, Taiseer Al-Ghorbani and Fatima Al-Muntasir, graduates from the Engineering College at Sana'a University, have spent the last five months working on a project to help visually impaired people navigate their way around campus.
What made you think of this project exactly?
Al-Nuzaili: Each college student was tasked with coming up with an idea for a graduation project. I have some visually impaired female friends who [rely on] a stick [for guidance]. I feel the difficulties of these women and agreed with two of my colleagues to come up with something that can enable them to walk without a guide.
What did you do?
Al-Muntasir: We looked at existing smart devices that help visually impaired people and found that most of them, such as the smart stick and phones, rely on sound and vibration. We couldn't find a light and sleek device.
Did you benefit from the existing devices?
Al-Muntasir: These devices were a source of inspiration. However, we mainly focused on creating a portable device with multiple benefits. The smart hat is a hat that helps the visually impaired recognize their surroundings. It's light and stylish.
Give us more details about this smart hat.
Al-Nuzaili: It uses ultrasounds to help the visually impaired sense what is within four meters from them, whether that be to their front, right or left. It's connected to headphones and produces different tones [depending on what objects the sensor picks up].
How can the visually impaired benefit from this hat?
Al-Nuzaili: Whenever the person moves, the sensors recognize what is surrounding him. The hat produces audio tones. The right handset makes a sound when an object is to the right of the person, and the left when the objects are to the left of the person. Both earphones produce tones if the object is in the front.
How can the user determine a dangerous place, the distance and the way to avoid it?
Al-Muntasir: The smart hat has many different tones. When objects are closer, the tone gets stronger. Moreover, the hat has special sounds for stairs, slopes and holes.
Do you think it could be confusing for the user?
Al-Nuzaili: Absolutely not. The person can control the tones and set the ones they want. The smart hat has 6 tones for the user to choose from. The tone can be set to low or high. If they do not want to use the tones, they can use the vibration function. The vibration function is based on a device called Alsirfa motor. The hat is equipped with a key pad, through which the tone can be controlled.
Is it easily portable?
Al-Ghorbani: The hat is light and easy to carry. It may take a short time to get accustomed to it. Then one can use it smoothly and freely. For a trial, some individuals were blindfolded and were given the hats to use... Those who took part in the experiment were able to tell us what was near them, based entirely on the tones they heard.
What difficulties did you face in making the hat?
Al-Ghorbani: The work was done by hand. It was not done in a factory. We would spend entire days on making one small part or installing a small piece... We hope one day we will have a laboratory so that we can make lots of smart hats. Now we have only one. Another difficulty is that the items ordered through the Internet were sometimes delivered late. Moreover, the hat does not have financial potential and this is especially difficult for us considering we are students.
How much does the smart hat cost?
Al-Nuzaili: Making it by hand means it is more expensive [than it could be]. Even if these imported items are cheap, the shipping is expensive. We also had to buy spare items so that we could replace any faulty parts. This smart hat costs about one thousand dollars, but of course it would be cheaper if we had a factory where we could make them in Yemen.
Samar Al-Nuzaili, Taiseer Al-Ghorbani and Fatima Al-Muntasir, graduates from the Engineering College at Sana'a University, have spent the last five months working on a project to help visually impaired people navigate their way around campus.
What made you think of this project exactly?
Al-Nuzaili: Each college student was tasked with coming up with an idea for a graduation project. I have some visually impaired female friends who [rely on] a stick [for guidance]. I feel the difficulties of these women and agreed with two of my colleagues to come up with something that can enable them to walk without a guide.
What did you do?
Al-Muntasir: We looked at existing smart devices that help visually impaired people and found that most of them, such as the smart stick and phones, rely on sound and vibration. We couldn't find a light and sleek device.
Did you benefit from the existing devices?
Al-Muntasir: These devices were a source of inspiration. However, we mainly focused on creating a portable device with multiple benefits. The smart hat is a hat that helps the visually impaired recognize their surroundings. It's light and stylish.
Give us more details about this smart hat.
Al-Nuzaili: It uses ultrasounds to help the visually impaired sense what is within four meters from them, whether that be to their front, right or left. It's connected to headphones and produces different tones [depending on what objects the sensor picks up].
How can the visually impaired benefit from this hat?
Al-Nuzaili: Whenever the person moves, the sensors recognize what is surrounding him. The hat produces audio tones. The right handset makes a sound when an object is to the right of the person, and the left when the objects are to the left of the person. Both earphones produce tones if the object is in the front.
How can the user determine a dangerous place, the distance and the way to avoid it?
Al-Muntasir: The smart hat has many different tones. When objects are closer, the tone gets stronger. Moreover, the hat has special sounds for stairs, slopes and holes.
Do you think it could be confusing for the user?
Al-Nuzaili: Absolutely not. The person can control the tones and set the ones they want. The smart hat has 6 tones for the user to choose from. The tone can be set to low or high. If they do not want to use the tones, they can use the vibration function. The vibration function is based on a device called Alsirfa motor. The hat is equipped with a key pad, through which the tone can be controlled.
Is it easily portable?
Al-Ghorbani: The hat is light and easy to carry. It may take a short time to get accustomed to it. Then one can use it smoothly and freely. For a trial, some individuals were blindfolded and were given the hats to use... Those who took part in the experiment were able to tell us what was near them, based entirely on the tones they heard.
What difficulties did you face in making the hat?
Al-Ghorbani: The work was done by hand. It was not done in a factory. We would spend entire days on making one small part or installing a small piece... We hope one day we will have a laboratory so that we can make lots of smart hats. Now we have only one. Another difficulty is that the items ordered through the Internet were sometimes delivered late. Moreover, the hat does not have financial potential and this is especially difficult for us considering we are students.
How much does the smart hat cost?
Al-Nuzaili: Making it by hand means it is more expensive [than it could be]. Even if these imported items are cheap, the shipping is expensive. We also had to buy spare items so that we could replace any faulty parts. This smart hat costs about one thousand dollars, but of course it would be cheaper if we had a factory where we could make them in Yemen.
© Yemen Times 2014
