Bruce and Ray Seymour were friends with Vincent Wojtusik. Vin was a multi-instrumentalist who played with Benny Goodman, a sculptor, and a blind citizen. Ray was visiting his friend and noticed that a walking cane was incredibly ill suited to help Vin get around his house.
Ray's solution is Digital Eyes - a hand held rangefinder that works with the iPhone. He describes it as a flashlight for the blind that helps them to more easily navigate their surroundings.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/igloledset/digital-eyes-hand-held-range-finder-with-iphone-co
Functional prototypes have been built and are demonstrated in the Kickstarter campaign video. Distance is measured using the two sensors that fit inside the snap-on Digital Eyes device, and when the user gets within a certain distance of an object an alert is given. Low energy Blue Tooth will be used to process the signals.
$48,000 is being sought through Kickstarter to fund prototype tooling and additional software development. Long range plans include a software development kit for users to develop new applications for the range finder.
This Kickstarter video isn't slick and polished but Bruce and Ray Seymour definitely know what they're doing. Bruce develops apps for a living and Ray is a retired General Electric engineer with over sixty US patents.
A testing plan has been developed to document issues, and the device runs on a 9Volt battery so the product can be sold without additional approvals from UL. The first units are expected to ship in September 2014.
Devices that allow for better accessibility are always fascinating to me, and coupling this range finder with an iPhone is even better. The Kickstarter needs more than $40,000 more dollars pledged before meeting its goal, and I'm very excited to see what happens next.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/igloledset/digital-eyes-hand-held-range-finder-with-iphone-co