Electronic long cane for locomotion improving on visual impaired people. A case study

This paper presents the assistive technology device called ELC (Electronic Long Cane), which was developed as a mobility aid for blind or visual impaired people. This approach comprises an ergonomic design along with an embedded electronics inside the grip of a traditional long cane, which, by mean of haptics, spreads human spatial and tactile perception. The device signalizes obstacles above waistline and warns about potential collisions. Qualitative evaluation of an ELC prototype was carried out by voluntary blind people. The obtained results showed the ELC effectiveness for detecting physical barriers located above of the imaginary waistline, so, contributing to a better perception of the surrounding space by blind people.