Blind engineer invents smart cane

Kursat Ceylan is blind. Realizing that cities are still not prepared enough to facilitate the daily life of the visually impaired, he innovated by creating a smart cane, called WeWalk.

'In these days, we are talking about flying cars, but these people have been using just a plain stick. As a blind person, when I am at the Metro station, I don’t know which is my exit… I don’t know which bus is approaching… which stores are around me. That kind of information can be provided with the WeWalk’, Kursat told CNN.

The smart cane uses an ultrasonic sensor to detect obstacles situated above the chest level and, once detection occurs, it gives vibrational warnings to the user.

WeWalk is paired with the phone, through the use of the WeWalk app. The connection is made using Bluetooth. This allows the user to, for example, use mobile applications through the WeWalk touchpad, without having to take the phone out.

It is also integrated with Voice Assistant and Google Maps to facilitate navigation. New integration features are likely to appear in the future, which will be installed through software updates.

WeWalk can currently be bought on the official website for $499, and the WeWalk app can be downloaded from the both the Apple Store and Google Play.

Adapted from: http://bit.ly/2m1J8xp
More info: https://wewalk.io
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NrUsAt_2BOU&feature=youtu.be