The White Cane Project
The white cane project is a project I did for my COGS 100 class. The goal of this project is to understand the ways blind people navigate their day-to-day surroundings and the limitations of the traditional white cane, and make a prototype of an improved white cane.
This project helps us understand how people interact with their surroundings in a physical way, and how we can use design as a tool to solve practical problems.
final design diagrams
My Contributions
My Contributions
RESEARCH
I researched the historical tools created for the visually impaired to navigate their surroundings as well as official Orientation and Mobility (O&M) strategies used by visually impaired people today.
I added more than 4 helpful credible sources to our “references” page.
our bibliography page
On the drawing board, I drew a sketch of an improved white cane based on the challenges we identified. With my teammates, we brainstormed improvements and iterated on the design.
DESIGN
an iteration of our design
the final illustration on our presentation
With my team, we conducted experiments navigating our area blindfolded with a traditional white cane. I documented our experiments with photos, videos, as well as written notes.
The data generated through these experiments are used to identify challenges in navigating with a traditional white cane which we want to solve with our design.
EXPERIMENT
identified challenge: navigating through a curve
left: identified challenge: navigating through a noisy environment
right: identified challenge: reliance on mental map
me during the experiment