Attending Members: Nick, Trung, Shane, Pietro, and Zack
The group met in design lab class to discuss design possibilities. After many different project ideas such as wind generator buildings, trash cans that take themselves out, ocean wave generators, and others we decided on ultrasonic device that allows the visually impaired to perceive their environment via sensation. We arrived at this idea because a
team member was walking to class one day and noticed a fellow student was using
a white cane. He then turned his
attention back to his cellphone and had a thought: “Why hasn’t that technology
been advanced?” Fixated on this idea, he
decided to brain storm on how technology could be used to help people who are
blind better navigate and understand their environment. Soon after he explained this to the
group. We decided that advancing the
technology that people who are blind use every day would be a good objective. The idea of using the bio-mimicry, fresh in
our mind, we theorized that humans could use the same type of sonic detection
that bats and dolphins use to navigate their environment. Specifically, we found the concept that
dolphins “feel” the sonic feedback with their body particularly inspiring. We felt that translating sonic feedback to
physical feedback would be a good way to navigate unfamiliar environments for
someone without sight.
Our team discussed the potential of our project briefly with Marco Janko that day. The project was approved and we began to brainstorm the overall design and what components that would be used.
Trung did the initial set up of the blog during this meeting.
Set up second meeting for 10/1/16
