viSparsh Intro

viSparsh Experience at TechEd2012

viSparsh: A touch of light

We are continuously fine-tuning the belt according to the feedback obtained from various blind organizations. We have been visiting National Association for Blinds(NAB), Delhi and obtained valuable feedback from Mohd. Wasim.


Mohd. Wasim is blind since his birth. He really appreciated the concept of a haptic belt that makes his hands and ear free and gives a broader perception of obstacles in the path. Here is a brief video describing the concept and working of viSparsh-

Test Drive-2: Rigorous Testing

This is the second test drive of viSparsh belt. We prepared an obstacle course in a closed hall and and simulated a special test environment with dummies and different sort of obstacles. The obstacles were of different materials, heights and widths. The test results were quite encouraging.


There has been some significant changes from our last test drive- 
1. We have increased number of vibrators from three to six to give a better indication of obstacle to the user. 
2. An autorun script has been created and deployed which starts the viSparsh belt automatically when we switch it on.  


Here is a video snippet of this test drive-

Test Drive-1: GET, SET……… GO!!!!!!!!!!

After the hard work of one and a half month finally we finished first phase of our project. We have designed the viSparsh v1.0. The belt includes a plastic box which contains PandaBoard, Mbed and Voltage Convertor and the Kinect fixed at the front of the belt. Currently we are using three vibration motors on three sides which we plan to increase to six in version 1.1.

We had our test drive today in our hostel and it worked exceptionally well with no false alarm. Some of the other fellows helped us in shooting the video and becoming the obstacles. Here is the video for this test drive-

Get Set Go.....

After few weeks of hustle bustle, we were finally able to kick start our project formally on 10th October 2011 when we also began with our 4th term of the program. After the first skype session with our mentor some of our main priorities were figured out to be as follows:

- The first target was to get budget sanction for our project which took about 10 days of time as this was the first time an ELM collaboration was happening between UPenn and YIF. Our budget was finally sanctioned on 23rd Sept. 2011.

- Our second target was to set up a lab at YIF. Since YIFP is in the first year of it's launch, we had space constraint issue. After pondering over various possibilities instead of lingering on, we finally thought to make temporary arrangements for the lab in one of our teammates' hostel room.

- On a parallel track we prepared the part list, did some market survey, figured out the best buy prices and ordered them. As almost all the parts were needed to be imported (required shipping), it again took some of our time in starting the project. Since in between the festive season also began and there was holiday between 28th September- 9th October '11, a further delay happened in obtaining the components. Overall this part also took around 10 days.

- Till the time these components were arriving we went to the local market to buy the miscellaneous items like solder iron, wire, extension board, LAN cable etc required to set up our lab.

- Initially as per our market survey we had decided on buying an ASUS laptop so as to best suit our requirements. However since we had a Samsung laptop (being given to each of the fellows by YIF), for starting purposes we thought of buying Monitor, Keyboard and Mouse separately instead of a new Laptop( with Graphics Card option etc) which costed us less.

First meeting with Prof Mangharam :)

Skype Meeting with Prof. Rahul Mangharam 

12-Sept-2011 

6.30 PM IST (9.30 AM EST)

•  Prof. Magharam directed us to take our ELM project work at YIF as a challenge in the form of a start-up company. He thereby suggested not only to emphasize on the technical aspects of the project but also to get exposed to aspects such as Market Research, User Experience, Case Studies etc.
• We were asked to immediately set up a lab at YIF to start our project work. For this we were asked to make and share a part list required for starting this project at the earliest.
• It was mentioned that after the completion of this initial task we would be required to write a second summary of how this product could be made viable by making it cost effective, working on the slim look, integrating with other solutions etc. Prof. asked us to give importance to the usability aspects of the product also as there is no point making a technological product unless it fulfils the demand of the users.

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All excited for the first meeting with Prof. Rahul (Our mentor)

Few days back we got the news that Prof. Rahul Mangharam from UPenn will be mentoring us as part of our ELM@YIF. Since then we have been very excited to meet Prof. Mangharam . Prof. has come up with an initial idea to assuage our thirst for doing research in the areas of HCI, embedded systems and robotics while adding value to the society. The initial idea was as described in the blog: http://kinecthesia.blogspot.com/ . This was a 3.5 months project taken up by undergraduate students at UPenn early this year.

Since our ELM is of 8 months, the task given is to deliver a viable product taking 'Kinecthesia' as our premises. The idea statement has been stated as follows by the Prof. - "To develop a Haptic Belt with the XBOX360 Kinect for visually impaired persons" where the initial technical effort needs to be taken to develop some relatively low-cost technology pieces and integrating them into a socially useful application. Although this is just an initial idea, we hope to do effective brainstorming with the Prof. when we talk to him for the first time. We all are geared up to officially start the project from today. Yippeee :-)