Cat on the Hat

Dear Blog Reader's
I shared this post with a gay blind group from Yahoo that I'm on. I share it here for a number of reasons One is Critques love to claim autisitc people have no imiagination and two If someone reads this and realizes the world is flooded with technology and kindess and love it would seem the blind are still stuck with a cane and a dog. Why is that in 2006?


Hi all,,

Inventor Rich here,,,,, I need some thoughts please-good bad and indifferent, All comments are welcome and appreciated.

I spent part of today researching a few on the market circuit boards and photo cells and web cameras and a few sonar type things and got the idea if we took some of this technology that can read a license plate from outer space to the new terrorist recognition technology put it together into a hat blind people might have a good guide dog on their head. The terrorist stuff is used in airports and cameras scans the faces and compares the current picture to a data base and if something matches pretty close a human is notified. The same stuff could be trained to realize friends, The layout of your house or even a route to the market. It might also pick out a gallon of milk or a box of something.

All the information processed could be converted to words and speakers inserted in the ears could tell you the information your sensor hat was getting. I found stuff that could read signs, and street numbers, I found stuff that realizes people faces and lots of inferred sensors that could tell you if someone was in front of you or a stove burner was on. Even a GPS sensor could guide you and just like the ones programmed in a car could be programed in your hat to guide you to a new designation. GPS is accurate to within 2-3 feet. Sonar and cameras could keep you on the sidewalk and off the street. Instead of blaring instructions you might hear a DEE BEEP sound if you were on the side walk and TA DEP if you were getting off the center of the sidewalk and BA BEEP sound if you were at an intersection. Some Cameras could easily read traffic lights and don't walk signs and street numbers. ()

If you wore or had a chip implanted in a finger a camera could be trained to read the tip of your finger so traditional Touchpads could be figured out, as well as door bell locations or elevator controls Batteries and controls could be worn on the belt. Settings could be precise so in areas like your home where things don't change you would know everything and even a few sensors like those used in department store security systems could guide you around your house (like you can't already get around there) . Less precise settings could guide you threw a crowd or into a restaurant. Again your finger could follow the menu and the camera could read the tip of your finger. The anti theft chips in a store are placed in merchandise and if they go past matched sensors on the exit doors they send off an alarm. You could put those on your door ways, etc., and have each one give a different signal. Yes, even a solar panel could be incorporated to help keep the hat charged or provide minimal back up power. Solar panels will work off man made light as well but sunlight is better.

Well, there is the thought, It seems lots of these boards could be programmed to work
together or perhaps a complete system could be developed. All of this stuff can be to some degree be purchased off the shelf and it has been already been invented just not combined in this manor. All computer stuff (typically) operates on 5 volts or less and getting a common chip or board to mate and match and combine the functions of all of this stuff would be doable.

You decide, I'm a day late and a dollar short? Are there any companies already attempting to build this? HONDA has built Asmo their robot that can walk, see and think this stuff can't be beyond technology. Of Course, blind folks don't make up a large portion of the population with money so as we know if a company can't smell money and make a 3 digit profit margin it typically doesn't get done.

All comments are Appreciated?

(Humor) Any volunteers to test my idea once I get it built?

Ps I had one trimester and Devry - probably just enough to be dangerous.



Rich Shull,,,, Http://prerainmanautism.blogspot.com