ARCANE: A Navigational Aid for the Visually Impaired

poster

ARCANE is a project my good friend, Abeer Javed, and I co-founded back in summer 2013 and it eventually became our year-long senior design project along with Alex Davis, Anastasia Dodd, Lindsay Langford, and Joseph Song.

The goal of the project is the design an assistive wearable device that could help the visually impaired navigate through the use of computer vision and haptic feedback. The system is designed to supplement the white cane and would warn the user of upcoming obstacles beyond the reach of the cane. The ARCANE uses stereovision, triangulation through corresponding points, through horizontally aligned RGB cameras to generate a depth map from the environment. The depth information is then processed and transferred wirelessly to a grid of vibrating motors. The motors then provide tactile feedback alerting the user of incoming obstacles.

ARCANE has won 2nd place in Rice ECE Affiliates Best Senior Design.

Project summary slides

Technical report and documentation