I received the following message, and pass it along
to you for discussion, or whatever.
Maybe Jim Willows can find out about it since he used
to work at Lawrence Livermore.
Ken, used to be a member in New Jersey.
Don't know if he still is.
David Andrews
TO: Tom Fowle, Smith Kettelwell DATE: 5/17/95
FROM: K. Gould SUBJECT: Radar for Blind
Navigation
cc: J. Halliday, Humanware D. Andrews, NFB
Just this morning I heard a story on National Public Radio's
"Morning Edition" about a new, compact, very inexpensive radar
device that is being developed at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.
(The individual being interviewed, the inventor, was named McUen.
I am just guessing at the spelling of his name.) To summarize,
Lawrence Livermore has developed and is currently licensing a new
radar device that can be used as a proximity detector and can be
set to sound an alarm when objects are at a particular, chosen
distance away. When produced as an integrated circuit, it might
cost as little as a dollar. It is small enough to be
incorporated into such mundane objects as a carpenter's stud
finder that would locate studs in a wall. It could also be
installed in an automobile to warn the operator when he or she
was about to collide with an object.
I have often dreamed of a sophisticated navigation device
that could assist blind people in navigating, avoiding collisions
with objects not detected by their canes, or in finding doorways.
Ultimately, a very sophisticated sensor array could even build an
audio picture of the immediate environment, much as sonar does
for a submarine. The invention of this radar device at Lawrence
Livermore just might make such a device possible. I urge that
you look into this invention and its applicability and that you
pass on this information to others who might have the engineering
talent to exploit this new invention.
Kenneth Gould
David Andrews, director
International Braille and Technology Center
for the Blind
National Federation of the Blind
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