In this paper, I redesigned a white cane into TalkingCane, an interactive instrument for communication between visually impaired people and the world. The research goal is to facilitate bus usage by blind people and hence increase their ability to exercise their essential right of accessibility in their daily lives.

We started with literature reviews of data from visual impairment organizations such as Korean Blind Union. We focused on next three things to discover visually impaired people's behavior:

Needs for traveling and difficulties in using public transportation

Assistive technology for the visually impaired people's travel

Limitations of applications based on Bus Information Service (BIS)

We designed a new way of communication between visually impaired people and their surroundings; a communication between a portable device and public data recorded on the The elements that compose our system include the following: smartphone, white cane with vibration motor and radio frequency identification (RFID) reader, passive RFID-planted braille blocks, and communication system between user and bus driver. Before elaborating the proposed design solution, we will first describe how each instrument works.

White cane

We tried to meliorate the current situation through the widely used apparatus, a white cane. This is because it is inadvisable to require extra effort due to other unfamiliar items. To most of the visually impaired, a white cane is an essential tool that supports daily life. We adopt vibrations instead of sounds such as voice guidance, which can hinder detection of obstacles through the sense of hearing. This will prevent possible confusion caused by overlapped or reiterated feedback.

At the tip of the cane, the RFID reader is implanted to read RFID chips buried in braille roadblocks. The RFID chips contain location information that will be sent to a smartphone once tagged by a white cane. Then, the smartphone speaks the information to the user through earphones.

Braille road block

Braille blocks and a passive RFID chip were chosen, since braille blocks have strength in their large establishment rate and wide usage and a passive RFID chip is durable enough to be installed and operate well inside the blocks. A passive RFID chip does not require a power source such as batteries, and it is able to be manufactured as waterproof. Each RFID contains location information, such as street names and the names of landmarks, to assist the users in finding the direction. Those special braille blocks with built-in RFID can be installed on various significant spots like crosswalks, building entrances, pedestrian overpasses, under passageways, and bus stops.

Communication system between bus drivers and users

Bus stops in Seoul give voice announcements telling the route numbers of incoming buses. However, a problem arises when multiple buses arrive at the bus stop since visually impaired users hardly recognize the right bus. Therefore, we propose a communication system between bus drivers and users. Bus information system in Seoul, which is operated by the Seoul city government, provides transit information including real-time bus location using GPS on every bus. Now, every bus has a device to check the distance between buses back and forth. Furthermore, drivers can communicate with dispatchers and other drivers in order to keep buses on schedule. If people with visual impairment can employ the system, they can send signals to a specific bus driver through an application. Considering that one of the main concerns of bus usage is how to recognize the correct boarding location among several buses, such mobile applications can be conducive to the safe boarding of buses. By promoting communication between users and drivers with the application, drivers can be more advertent of visually impaired passengers waiting at the bus stop.

First, users input their destination on the smartphone application. The input data will be delivered through voice recognition technology since it is difficult for visually impaired people to utilize a touch screen to type words into their phone. Then, by using map data, the application suggests a recommended route including both pedestrian paths and transportation transits. While walking on the pedestrian walkaways, the user can use his or her own white cane in two ways. Firstly, as usual, users can rely on his or her cane to avoid immediate obstacles in the way, for which application guidance cannot be provide forewarning. The user follows braille roadblocks with his or her white cane.

As it follows the braille roadblocks, the cane will operate the second function; hitting braille roadblocks with this newly designed cane, an RFID reader at the tip of the cane reads location information from RFID chips in roadblocks. Then, the white cane sends location information to a smartphone.

When a user has to be informed of the exact direction or has to make a turn at the corner, vibration motors in the handgrip tell users which direction to go, and how many degrees to turn. Along with vibration, the user’s smartphone tells a few types of necessary information to the user with voice: landmarks, the ends of each block, crosswalks, and corners. Due to the process, users can find where they are and thus do not feel astray.

At the bus stop, the user waits for the right bus. When the user arrives at the bus stop and tags the RFID chip with the white cane, a notification is sent to the bus driver.

When the bus arrives, it will make an audio signal from the front door so that the blinded person can recognize distance and direction to the door.

The unique contribution of TalkingCane is to combine shared public data with a white cane to improve traveling experience of the visually impaired without introducing additional gadgets. Our objective is to help visually impaired people take buses easily by increasing accessibility. We conducted a literature review to find visually impaired people’s difficulties in taking buses.

During the review, we discovered the need for communication technology between visually impaired users and the world for a better traveling experience. To establish the communication, a white cane and braille roadblocks were chosen as new interactive devices. Many of our target user groups already use them in their daily lives. The white cane was a great device to apply haptic feedback for terrain obstacles and become an RFID reader as communication equipment.