Today, I attended the Monmouth Junior Science Symposium at Monmouth University. One of the most interesting presentations I saw was by Liezl Puzon from Freehold. Her paper, A Kinect-Based, Low-Collision Obstacle Navigation Device for the Blind, used Microsoft's Kinect to allow the visually impaired to better navigate through daily life.
Liezl started by pointing out that the visually impaired do not always have access to the resources they need to help them move and interact with those around them. Seeing eye dogs can be expensive, and white canes do not always provide a necessary amount of help for its users.
As an alternative to white canes and seeing eye dogs, she used Microsoft's Kinnect; with its visual sensing capabilities, she programmed it to alert its users of approaching obstacles with beeping patterns or verbal statements. I thought that her idea was very interesting, for I had never thought of the Kinnect as more than part of a video game console. Liezl truly considered helpful uses for the technology around her, and I am overall mazed by her innovation.
Liezl started by pointing out that the visually impaired do not always have access to the resources they need to help them move and interact with those around them. Seeing eye dogs can be expensive, and white canes do not always provide a necessary amount of help for its users.
As an alternative to white canes and seeing eye dogs, she used Microsoft's Kinnect; with its visual sensing capabilities, she programmed it to alert its users of approaching obstacles with beeping patterns or verbal statements. I thought that her idea was very interesting, for I had never thought of the Kinnect as more than part of a video game console. Liezl truly considered helpful uses for the technology around her, and I am overall mazed by her innovation.