From Hong Kong Polytechnic University comes a set of shoes and glasses that have an embedded computer, which can locate objects within close range through echo-location followed by a vibrating warning signal that is sent to the one wearing those shoes and glasses.
“Ultrasonic waves are sent out and when they bounce back they are interpreted by a receiver.” Research Institute of Innovative Products and Technologies director Wallace Leung Woon-fong was quoted telling the Sunday Morning Post. “Once an obstacle isthe shoe will vibrate, perhaps increasing in intensity as the obstacle gets closer,”
The shoes make use of GPS (Global Positioning System) to inform the wearer about his position and the direction he is heading to.
The discoveries are based on the award winning “electronic bat ears” sonic glasses developed by the university’s Professor He Jufang, which use similar technology to transmit to the wearer information such as size and distance of an object.
However some visually impaired people were a little skeptical about it and expressed reservations about the inventions.