In my senior Mechanical Engineering capstone class at CMU, my team worked on the design of a smart telescoping cane for the blind. The class was a semester long process in which we did need finding, product decomposition, and developed multiple prototypes. My team decided to focus on a telescopic cane for the blind, that is easily portable, durable, inexpensive, and easier to expand while giving the user added perceptual ability.

 

Under normal circumstances the average cane covers obstacles in the lower proximity of the user however it cannot detect low hanging obstacles such as tree branches, forcing the user to run into those obstacles. We designed and prototyped a cane that uses a sonar system to detect the obstacles beforehand and alerts the user through a haptic feedback system in the user’s hand, giving the user the ability to dodge said obstacles and create a much more pleasant walking experience.

 

The mechanism of our design is similar to the mechanism of an umbrella, but improved upon such that it is sturdier. We did not include springs in our device because it accounts for potential safety hazard issues in the sense that a spring-loaded telescoping mechanism might cause injury upon rapid expansion especially when handled by a blind patient. Rather, we utilized an air damping solution so that our cane slides out smoothly and locks into place without the potential of injuring the user. The images below show the CAD for our final prototype and the prototype in its collapsed length.