| Johns Hopkins undergraduate
students Elen Tsai and Helen Schwerdt, working in the Laboratory for Computational
Sensing and Robotics (LCSR), part of the NSF-funded Engineering Research
Center (ERC) for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology (CISST),
have developed a glove (Figure 1) that could potentially give a blind person
the ability to sense color. Working on a project-based course under
Professor Ralph Etienne-Cummings of the LCSR, the students designed the
ColorGlove to provide a means of color perception to the blind or visually
impaired.
The glove functions by means
of a sensor that utilizes a phototransistor (Figure 2), which responds
to light intensity and wavelengths that correspond to a specific LED color
(red, green, or blue) being activated. Feedback is provided to the
user by cell phone vibrators which vibrate at intensities that correlate
with the intensity of the color at the surface of the sensors. The
vibrators are assembled between the three finger joints, where each vibrator
corresponds to a red, green, or blue LED. In order to effectively
perceive color, the user learns to distinguish colors based on the amount
of red, green, and blue on the object of interest.
Professor Etienne-Cummings’
project course in electronics design and product development requires students
to conceptualize a needed product, conduct research to see whether the
product exists, analyze what is available in the marketplace, and then
develop their own product to address the gaps. Typically, the
devices developed are biomedically oriented. Ms. Tsai and Ms. Schwerdt
(figure 3) are developing a final prototype, which will then be evaluated
through a rigorous experimental protocol using human subjects. If
successful, the ColorGlove device could be of significant value in improving
the lives of the visually impaired. |
