A team of collaborators from the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Arkansas, Little Rock are starting work on a robotic device worn on the hand that will work to extend the abilities of blind people to move around and to find and grasp nearby things. It will work using cameras and other kinds of sensors to identify objects, while some sort of force feedback will be used to help the wearer know when the hand is getting close to the object of interest.
The final goal will be to maybe allow the user to catch a thrown ball. An array of actuators can help describe the shape of the object and another its size, some other mechanism can help point the hand in the right direction.
The research is being sponsored with an $820,000 grant from the NIH’s National Robotics Initiative, administered by the National Eye Institute Division.
Source: University of Nevada, Reno…