MOR FORWARDED MAIL ABOUT BLIND ELECTRONIC TRAVEL AIDES.

From: Brian Buhrow (buhrow@lothlorien.nfbcal.org)
Date: Mon May 22 1995 - 07:20:01 PDT


TO: >INTERNET:NFB-RD@LOTHLORIEN.NFBCAL.ORG

RNZFB ELECTRONIC MESSAGE 341910, 22 MAY 1995 09:41AM
Sent by: Clive Lansink
To: COMPUSERVE:>INTERNET:NFB-RD@LOTHLORIEN.NFBCAL.ORG
Subject: Electronic travel aids
 
I wish to add some comments to the discussions on electronic travel aids, in
particular the range of devices such as the Sonnic Guide that use ultra-sound as
the means of detecting the objects.

The development work for the Sonnic Torch and Sonnic Guide was done by a
Professor Lesley Kay, who is still working in the field here in New Zealand.
While his primary work is now more focused on harnessing sonnic sensors to
robots as a form of artificial vision, he has not completely removed himself
from working with blind people.

Following on from the Sonnic Guide, he developed a unit called the Trisensor. I
believe this was never in commercial production, but numerous experiments were
conducted in the early 1980s with the trisensor, particularly focusing on its
use as an aid to develop spacial awareness and concepts in blind children. Much
of this work was done by the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind at its
school for blind children.

The people who I know personally today that were involved in this work speak
very highly of how the device significantly stimulated children to explore their
environment with confidence. It is also universally felt by the people that I
know, that it was a pity that the device never became a production model. As
significant changes took place in the school and the education system, and key
people moved on to do other things, this work at the school seemed to just
fizzle out.

Well here we are in 1995, and the Trisensor is back, and there is the
possibility that it may be manufactured commercially. The RNZFB has purchased a
number of units for evaluation, and I understand several other agencies around
the world have also. Whether the level of interest will be sufficient to cause
this new product to go into full commercial production, and it would probably be
with a new company, is at this stage not clear.

I was a sonnic guide user from way back, but I stopped using the device when my
unit became unreliable, and my mobility patterns at that time were such that I
only seemed to be walking in very familiar areas. Many times since then, I have
really regretted not having the device.

But the new Trisensor is very much better. It is named because it has a central
beam as well as two side beams. the result is a much more strongly defined
picture of the environment, with a considerable amount of central as well as
peripheral information. The new design is on a headband only, and there is now
an automatic level control that adjusts the sound of the device in relation to
the external environmental noise, a knice feature. The cosmetics are also much
improved, and could still be further improved if it went into commercial
production. The earphones also are quite different, in fact they are not really
earphones at all now, and they do not detract in any way from a person's normal
audible environmental perception. There is a choice of two distance ranges, one
for indoors and one for outdoors.

I know what Tim means when he describes the reaction from other blind people,
that instances that cause them problems may be no problem to a sonnic guide
user. The reaction from others is "that's alright for you". I get that same
reaction from users of OCR scanners when I get out the Optacon and get the
reading done, while they're still figuring out which page in the book they're
looking for. My reaction is that these devices are for the individual to go
after, the world doesn't come to you any more like it did in the more
institutional past.

Getting back to the concept of artificial vision, I've had long discussions with
Professor Kay about this. He once made a point to me that I've never forgotten.
He pointed out to me that even though the information received through something
like the Sonnic Guide or Trisensor is by no means real vision, its level of
detail and distance can still be significantly greater than the vision enjoyed
by some very low vision partially sighted people. This leads to an
inconsistency in the world that I still grapple with. There is this attitude
among professionals that anyone with low vision, even if it is extremely low,
should make use of it. But there seems no interest in giving people with no
vision even something approaching low vision. But in reality, a good performer
with a Sonnic Guide can achieve greater freedom of mobility that some partially
sighted people, and a good Optacon user can achieve greater print reading speeds
than some partially sighted readers. I just wish the world would stop
categorizing those of us who use devices such as these as the "super blind",
because it somehow presupposes that numerous other totally blind people cannot
benefit from such technology.

Professor Kay is very keen to ensure that the new Trisensor is not thought of as
simply a mobility aid. I think he feels that the primary reason for poor
understanding of the Sonnic Guide is that many people only thought of it as a
mobility aid. He wants the Trisensor to be thought of as an aid that provides
some form of artificial vision, and develops spacial awareness and perception of
the surrounding environment. It can be used in a rehabilitation setting just to
stimulate environmental exploration, in children or newly blinded adults, or it
can be used as a straight mobility or navigation aid. It does not matter if a
device like this is only used by someone for a relatively limited time. If,
during that time, the person has gained confidence and knowledge about the world
around them, then that's a good job done. The device provides environmental
information and it is up to any user to determine whether this is of any value
in a mobility setting. I think this is a crucial point in developing a new way
of thinking about this technology.

Clive Lansink
Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind

--- End of forwarded message from <nfb-rd@lothlorien.nfbcal.org>



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