Date:10/05/2005 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2005/05/10/stories/2005051005980600.htm

Tamil Nadu

An e-Braille map for the visually impaired

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: "The College of Engineering, Guindy, would like to involve its students in developing technologies on problems pertaining to society."

In keeping with this principle put forth by Dean R. Ramaprabhu, three final year students have come with a concept for aiding the visually challenged.

Titled "Dynamic e-Braille Map for The Blind" the model, developed by D. Lavanya, M. Krupa Devi and K. Prabhu of the Computer Science department, acts as a guidance tool that enables visually impaired people to find their way around without human assistance.

The system has two units — a mobile GPS (Global Positioning System) enabled transmitting unit held by the user, and a stationary server unit.

Through the GPS system, the user's current position is conveyed to the server. Through voice signals, the user's destination is also conveyed to the system. The server uses an automated software tool to accept the positions, locate them on a pre-existing map, and find the most suitable path between them. This path is transmitted to a Braille map on the mobile unit, which the user can read, and correspondingly move. The system is automated and requires little human intervention.

The students visualised the idea together with their final year project guide — Dr. K. Vani. The Head of Department, Dr. T.V. Geetha, pointed out that fellow graduates had had similar ideas for their projects, simple but revolutionary.

A paper on the model is due for presentation at various international conferences.

Furthermore, the students and teachers have approached the Union Department of Science and Technology with a proposal to implement and correspondingly design the model to enable general use.

The model in the present stage does have its limitations.