A Tilt Compensated Haptic Cane for Obstacle Detection

Several Electronic Travel Aids (ETA) have been developed to improve the autonomy of impaired people, with specific regard to visually impaired. Such systems often perform a good job in detecting obstacles, identifying services and, generally, obtaining useful information from the surroundings, thus enabling a safe and effective exploitation of the environment. The main drawback of systems developed in the Ambient Assisted Living framework is related to the form and the degree of information provided to the end-user. The arbitrary codifications, often adopted, lead to a diffidence of the user against the proposed solutions. This paper deals with a study on a haptic device aimed to provide the user with information on the presence of obstacles inside the environment. The haptic interface is intended to reproduce the same stimuli provided by a traditional white cane, without any contact with the environment. A real prototype of the system, implemented through a short cane with an embedded smart sensing strategy and an active handle, is presented. The tests performed, with users in good health and blindfolded, confirm the suitability of the proposed solution.