Girl builds cane to help blind people

Mihika, a young student, and her mother Manisha, were helping an old blind woman across the street when she tripped. This made Mihika want to find a solution.
“An elderly lady was crossing the road and she nearly fell over a step. This upset Mihika and she said ‘I will make a stick so the blind can cross safely’. She got some paper and made her initial design”, the mother recalled.

In 2016, Manisha entered the design into a competition called the Primary Engineer Leaders’ Award. This award helped Mihika develop her first Smart Stick prototype with the help of some college students.

The device features built-in ultrasonic sensors to detect obstacles, a water sensor to detect puddles, Bluetooth connection which provides audio warnings and motors to help direct the user. It even has a remote to help locate the stick if the owner loses it.

However, because of lack of funding, the gadget doesn’t all the features Mihika designed. So her and her family launched a crowdfunding campaign.

According to the competition jury members, Smart Stick has “unique features” such as right and left vibrating alerts, LED lights and a camera with artificial intelligence.

Adapted from: https://bit.ly/2MLilR7