The Sixth - Sense

The Sixth - Sense

Experiencing the Beauty

The Sixth Sense is a hand-held mobility assistive device that aids the visually impaired in walking thus enabling an experience of the freedom of independent movement.

Using echolocation and sonar, same as is used by bats and dolphins in object detection and applying modern concepts in IoT, AI & machine learning and Big Data, the devices are built to be the ultimate walking companion to the visually impaired.

The Sixth - Sense

The Problem

285 Million Visually impaired people in the world.

This is almost 5% of the human population and the number is on the rise. Mobility aids are The white cane and Guide dogs. Guide dogs are extremely expensive to maintain and are not accessible with less than 1% of visually impaired people owning guide dogs. The main aid for mobility is the white cane but it comes with so many limitations as discussed on the right.

Above-the-knee obstacles: The White cane can’t detect any obstacles above knee-level such as tree branches.

Range of obstacle detection:  The white cane only warns of obstacles in the immediate of the person thus at times not enough time to respond in evading the danger.

Discrimination: There is a lot of discrimination that has been tagged to the use of the white cane. A visually impaired user described it as walking with a flag and waving it telling everyone you are blind and helpless.

Smooth movement: Cane travel can be more cumbersome and not as fluid.  A cane gets stuck in cracks and you get a poke in the stomach, could be painful. The cane gets damaged very often needing replacement every so often.

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