The hindu Scitech
Deepa Kurup
Street-smart innovation: Called 'Le Chal' (Hindi for 'take me there'),
24-year-old Anirudh Sharma's shoe-smartphone combination is a simple navigation
aide.
Having landed a much-sought-after job at the research lab of a leading global
IT major, fresh out of college, Anirudh Sharma was working on cutting-edge
product technologies. But what really drove him was something he was doing on
the side, in his own time, over weekly offs and after hours, burning the
proverbial midnight oil: developing a shoe that he hoped would transform the
lives of millions of visually impaired people.
The drive
Last month, when Mr. Sharma's work with the haptic shoe prototype was
recognised by the MIT Technology Review, which featured him in a global list of
top innovators and accorded him the title of 'Indian Innovator of the Year', he
knew that he was on the right track, technology-wise.
Yes, it would open up new windows, offer more traction for his work, and help
spread the word. But what really enthuses the 24-year-old is the feedback, the
enthusiasm and the joy he saw on the faces of the visually impaired people who
tried out the prototype of his invention at an accessibility summit he attended
in New Delhi.
"When they told us that a product like this could indeed work for them, and
change the quality of their lives, I knew I was on the right track," he says,
visibly excited and eager to talk about this experience.
When Mr. Sharma decided that he wanted to make a product that could potentially
improve the quality of some lives, he stumbled upon the fact that there were
few practical technological aides for people with disabilities. Technology is
yet to touch their lives, or make things easier in the way it should, he points
out, adding that even existing technologies for the visually impaired are
hugely obtrusive, cumbersome (using voice feedback devices that are tough to
handle or camera goggles).
Mr. Sharma's endeavour with the haptic shoe-based technology was to solve this
problem.
Called 'Le Chal' (which means 'take me there' in Hindi), his shoe-smartphone
combination is a simple navigation aide.
The shoe is embedded with hardware (an Arduino circuit board laid out in the
sole region of the shoe and vibrating actuators on all sides of the sole).
This embedded electronics layer is connected via Bluetooth to a smartphone that
sits comfortably in the pocket of the user. Most of the number crunching,
processing and computation that makes the navigation possible happens here, on
the GPS-enabled smartphone. Simple vibrations are the language the device uses
to communicate instructions to the user.
How it works
So, at the outset, the user speaks into the mobile phone: spelling out his
current location, and his destination. Once the instructions are given, the
smartphone app (currently developed on the Android platform, and yet to be
released in app stores as the product is still in the prototype stage) fetches
detailed Google maps and charts out the directions.
Since the app is in sync with the shoe, these directions are conveyed to the
software layers embedded in the shoe. So when the user starts on the journey,
every time his GPS coordinates change, the software computations are made and
conveyed to the user in the form of vibrations.
For instance, if the user must turn left, the vibration actuators on the left
side of his shoe start working. The length of the vibrations vary depending on
the overall proximity from the destination, that is weak vibrations in the
beginning and incrementally longer at the end of the navigation task; this is,
of course, to alert the user about a possible turn in advance, Mr. Sharma
explains.
Superbly simple
What's impressive about the prototype is its simplicity. Mr. Sharma, who was
gunning for a tech intervention that would be as unobtrusive and intuitive as
possible, says the hardware is fairly low-cost and the circuitry simple. For
"obvious business reasons", Mr. Sharma doesn't reveal (his start-up has applied
for two patents on the technology) more details of the technology that layers
the sole of his haptic shoe. However, he explains that the circuitry is simple
and makes use of low-cost readily available components. In fact, Mr. Sharma
says, currently he and his team (most hackers he's hiring on contract for the
coding) are working on coming up with a prototype that will hopefully even
eliminate the need for a smartphone, using a simpler GPS-enabled gadget instead.
Cost concerns
His business associate, a technologist-cum-patents lawyer, Krisplan Lawrence,
says he is focussing on the patents bit, as a lot of innovation in India goes
unnoticed because of "the lack of focus on IP".
However, as far as technology goes for the disability sector, the real hurdle
is cost. Most proprietary technologies - even simple optical readers or
speech-to-text convertors - are hugely expensive.
Most visually impaired persons who do use these technologies for simple tasks
such as navigating the Web complain that tech aides are simply unaffordable,
with something like a simple reader costing over Rs. 60,000 to Rs. 1 lakh.
While Mr. Sharma feels it is too early to speculate on what the costs would be,
he says he is conscious of this huge price impediment.
He hopes his product, when it is out, would cost much lesser than existing
interventions, "perhaps, a few thousands", he says.
"We are working very hard to ensure that the gadgetry we use is as low-cost as
it can be. And every choice we make, we are conscious of the fact that our
ultimate reward will be when thousands of people will be able to use it, and
hopefully, lead a more independent and better quality life."
With thanks and regards
(Rajesh Asudani)
Assistant General Manager
Reserve Bank of India
Nagpur
Cell: 9420397185
o: +91 712 2806846
R: 2591349
(In youth you want things, and then in middle-age you want to want them.)
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