Making classroom experience seamless for visually challenged
A team of students at International Institute of Information TechnologyBangalore (IIITB) have come up with a firstofitskind technology that would help visionimpared students get a seamless learning experience in a physical classroom.
The technology that comes with a hardware device to be mounted on the student’s finger was granted a patent in the second week of March, and requires a smart board equippedclass room.
“All the student needs to do is place their finger with the device on a flat surface, for example, a desk,” explains Mayank Kabra, who worked on the hardware part of the technology.
Once connected with the device using WiFi or local networks, the smart board would be virtually mapped to the desk. In other words, the desk would act as the student’s board and the device as a mouse of sorts.
If the teacher is explaining a certain concept on the board, say a triangle, the vibrations inside the device will guide the finger movements of the student helping them to trace the shape of a triangle. If the teacher’s cursor goes to a certain portion on the screen, the student will be able to follow it in nearreal time.
The device is also equipped with Braille dots, allowing the user to understand the text on the smart board.
“The visually impaired person who is wearing the device will get two feedback. One is the haptic feedback. And the other is from the Braille sensor. Together, they ensure that when the professor is writing or drawing on the board, the student also gets the similar sensation,” Kabra explains.
Professor Madhav Rao, associate professor at IIITB, who guided the team, notes that they started working on the technology with the idea that it would particularly help the visually challenged students to understand shapes, images and diagrams.
“When I teach, I should not be limited only to texts or diagrams. It should be seamless; You go to a figure, then explain the concept, move to a formula it’s seamless movements. We wanted to equip this finger lock device with those kinds of seamless changes,” says prof. Rao.
“If a diagram is being drawn on the board, the device gives a certain vibration so that the finger starts navigating and gets to understand the closest form of that diagram. Then if the instructor is writing a text, the student will be able to understand the Braille form of the text,” he explains, adding that the technology, although in its current form enables the student to understand only planar images like a circle or triangle, is further being developed.
Cost effective and compact
The IITB team’s device works on a sixdot Braille system, can be reused and is cost effective. It consists of six Braille dots, tiny motors to control them, and microcontrollers for directions.
According to Kabra the manufacturing cost of the device would be much lesser compared to other Braille devices in the market. “The hardest part was designing the mould and assembling all the things. We had to design everything so compactly and even a millimetre of change would mean the dots will not fit onto the motor,” says Kabra who has also incorporated a startup named Chipcron at the institute.
An integrated MTech student at IIITB, he developed the technology along with Divyansh Singhal, Chinmay Sultania, Soham Pawar, and Anshul Madurwar – all integrated MTech students at IIITB. The team is also considering productising the technology and is looking for partners.