So for your first question, there's a lot of amazing technology out right now, but it is insanely expensive, and in some cases almost disgustingly expensive. I would make an objective of whatever you do to have it be something that can be produced and sold inexpensively because there are a lot of tools that I would benefit from right now but I can't because I don't have the money to purchase them right now and applying for grants can take a long time.

With that note out of the way doing something with GPS would be a great idea. The most popular (at least in my area) standalone GPS is the Humanware Trekker Breeze +. I had a chance over the summer to trial run a Trekker everyday for 3 weeks and loved it. I unfortunately don't have the $800 USD to get one myself and had to give it back to the O&M instructor that lent it to me. That is a good model to go off of.

A few things that the Trekker does that would be must haves in a device that I would personally purchase:

* Automatic call outs of intersections and street names
* Descriptions of intersections (4 way stop, 4 way lighted, 2 way stop, T intersection and orientation of the T relative to my approach of the intersection, etc.) This is critical information for analyzing an intersection and executing a safe crossing, while it is information I can figure out on my own it is faster to just know what it is as I approach.
* Custom landmarks
* Walking directions
* Landmarks should be called out with either a clock direction or compass direction. An estimated distance is also important and the user should be able to set their unit measure (I prefer Meters but some will prefer Feet).

* A "look around" feature that allows the user to hear lists of different points of interest like tourist things, restaurants, shops, etc.

* The device should be 100% tactile and audio controlled.

Some things the Trekker does/ did not do when I was using it that should be a part of a GPS:

* Voice commands... This is something that might be difficult to integrate if you are already building a system from the ground up but I'm going to say it either way because the Trekker's greatest pitfall for me was trying to navigate the menu and type in information. This could possibly be remedied by having a companion app that could feed the device with information so you can piggyback on the available voice control platform and as a result have an easier to control device that is more accurate and doesn't drain the phone battery.

* GLONASS technology integration, the gen 1 Trekker I used did not have GlONASS on board, they may have added it to the + model. This is important for making the system more accurate and having it update position faster.

* The button layout and UI should be simple, the Trekker had a bit of a learning curve for navigating to what I wanted in the menus the first few days.

I will edit more in if I think of anything else, I'm sure I will think of more things that need to be in a system like this. It's important that GPS never become a crutch or a substitute for proper O&M technique and skills, but they are fantastic supplements. I also prefer standalone units as opposed to phones because I need my phone to be a phone and GPS really drains phone battery. I don't mind carrying more if there is something that can do a better job.

Okay, so for your current idea of a cane mountable, sonar/ laser system with GPS system. I know there is at least one electric cane device on the market with a laser system integrated, I honestly don't know exactly what it does nor do I particularly care because it's over $1,000 USD and I have a tendency to bend canes that makes me opposed to spending more than $30 USD for a folding Ambutech mobility cane. I suppose this could be remedied by making the device removable. The other device may be removable but I still wouldn't use it for the next reason.

I wouldn't want more weight on a cane, I try to keep my canes as light as I possibly can especially because I use a longer cane relative to my height (I'm 5'10" and I use a 60" cane). Having more weight I have to swing in a two point tap technique puts more strain on my wrist, when I use my slightly heavier cane I can feel the difference after a few miles of walking.

With regards to the vibrating handle, I would not use that either. One of the advantages of a cane is it gives you a lot of tactile awareness that I very much need in bright sunlight and in the dark to tell whether I'm on smooth sidewalk pavement or if I'm about to step out onto rougher asphalt. Anything that interferes with that or that could throw those queues off would get turned off immediately. I prefer audio queues. I'd look into bone conduction headsets which don't block the ears so that hearing is not impaired.

So in summary I would not personally use a cane mounted device. This is personal preference from a public transit cane commuter in an urban area. It may work for others but at the rate I go through canes it just wouldn't get used. My preference is a device I can mount to my body somewhere. When I was using it I would clip the Trekker to the cross strap of my daily carry messenger bag and that worked great. This kind of rules out any kind of sonar/ laser idea (probably). You may be able to make it work but I honestly would not use that system. It likely wouldn't provide me with more useful information than my long cane and those systems are subject to interference/ unreliability/ battery issues. I don't want sensory overload so I would probably not use this and just trust my cane. I've heard of concepts where you take a device like this and have it replace the cane so that the user doesn't have to swing anything in front of them. I'm not going to ever go for something like that, I will never hinge my getting home safely on a battery or electronic that can fail, aside from the fact that I would be losing a lot of information. Technology can never take over proper O&M techniques, it can improve efficiency but never become a crutch.

So that's kind of where I stand on your current idea, I really love the GPS idea, and we certainly need more competition in that market to keep new features coming out and to drive down the price, I just wouldn't practically apply a sonar/ laser/ cane mounted device for the above reasons, it's a really cool idea but I think for a lot of people it just would not be used. That's just me though, and it may be a good warning tool for someone who doesn't need to use a cane but still occasionally runs into things, having something that signals a streetlamp or pole on their side that they may not see could be helpful for them, but for a cane user it would redundant and would likely get annoying. Again, that's just me though, and I'm sure someone would find it useful in one application or another.

I really hope this helps, I love this idea and I had a lot of fun writing this. Please keep us posted on the progress of your project and if you need any questions answered feel free to hit me up. Good luck :)

1) anything that's lowtech, cheap, portable and affordable.
Low tech and cheap like a braille slate/stylus combo (under $10 and you can write anywhere)
Practical solutions that also work with existing technology such as iPhones. Lots of apps already help with daily life - Blindsquare, KNFBreader, Bemyeyes, Taptapsee...
So you can read the value if your coins, scan and hear the text of something, get the walking directions or sightsee wearing headphones, read audiobooks etc etc.

2) there are alternatives to your current product.
An iPhone, a gps app or one that can read the ibeacons, an apple watch to vibrate the instructions and/or headphones to hear the instructions...
How would you make the box communicate the info to the user? Vibrations are not practical (depends also on the type of cane and tip type). And the point of the cane is to see the ground.

This might be too ambitious, but I have a fantasy that involves a GPS system...for *inside* buildings. Going new places is always daunting for me - it would be amazing to be walking down a hallway and have my phone tell me where elevators, restrooms, or certain rooms are located. If I'm going somewhere new and have to be there at a certain time, I have to go the day before to figure it out - or show up at least an hour early. Or to be able to skip the awkwardness of asking 3 different people where the restrooms are because they just point to a spot in the (too far) distance. I know this means getting an automatic schematic of every building a person would walk into, which is why it's too ambitious - but gods I'd feel SO much more confident and independent with something guiding me by ear.

1: A device that can let a blind person know if the light is green or amber so they don't constantly run the risk of getting run over by trucks. There are a few blind friendly gps out there now but none can help read traffic lights.


2: Your current project has already been tried in various forms in the past- GPS cane, object sensor, etc. There is also already a cane out there that'd let blind people do facial recognition. I think your current project's biggest weakness is that it's not breaking new ground unless you can find a way to mass produce it and sell it cheap.

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