visually impair person can drive in future

A car for blind drivers coming next year The National Federation of the Blind and Virginia Tech say they hopeto demonstrate a prototype equipped with technology that helps asightless personto get behind the wheel in 2011. The technology, called non-visualinterfaces, will guide its driver through traffic by transmittinginformation aboutnearby vehicles or objects. Vibrating gloves or streams of compressed air directed towards thedriver are among the options for communicating the information neededto avoid collisionsand reach a destination. Advocates for the blind describe the project as a “moon shot”, drawingparallels with President John F. Kennedy’s pledge to land a man on themoon. “We’re exploring areas that have previously been regarded asunexplorable,” said Mark Maurer, president of the National Federationof the Blind. “We’removing away from the theory that blindness ends the capacity of humanbeings to make contributions to society.” Here’s how the vehicle works: The steering wheel is hooked up to adistance monitor that gathers information from laser range finders. Voice software is used to direct the driver every second on exactlyhow far to turn the steering wheel. For example, the monitor will tellthe driver “turnleft three clicks.” As the driver does that, the monitor makes three clicking noises. Avibrating vest provides cues to follow when accelerating anddecelerating. The vest will vibrate in various spots–the back, abdominal area andthe shoulders–to relay a variety of commands. When a driver needs to“Hit the brakes!”the entire vest will vibrate to a fare-thee-well!
)taken from the internet)