Prototype Smartcane Helps The Blind Find Their Friends Through FourSquare

How’s this for a practical use of location based social media sites? A design student from the National University of Singapore, Selene Chew, has created a new device that not only allows the blind and partially blind to navigate their environment, but also communicate and find their friends.

The BlindSpot is a prototype white cane that utilizes a GPS-enabled smartphone and accompanying ear piece. Reported on Co.Exist, one of the main features of the cane is if any of the user’s friends check in on Foursquare nearby, they are alerted to their presence via an audio message. The message in question details how far away they are, right down to the number of steps it’ll take to reach them. Users have the option to ignore, call the person or best of all, find them using tactile navigation.

On top of that main feature, the Blindspot cane also prevents users from walking into inanimate objects irrespective of its position. So even if the object is located at eye level where sweeping the cane wouldn’t allow the user to find it, the cane will detect the object and alert the user through the bluetooth earpiece allowing them to navigate around it.

The idea won second prize at the James Dyson Awards and at the moment, Chew is looking for a partner to produce the smartcane on an industrial scale.