InvenTeam members, from left: Miles Jarvis, Pasquale Ekert, Christie Devlin, Peter Moberly, Elise Fleming, Jon Fricchione, Connor Mackenzie, Nikki Jordan, Adam Katcher, Brian Lynch, Shunan Zhao. Missing: Keiron Stoddart, Sam Piesch, Scott Nussdorfer, Brendan Chen, Matthew Schmidt, Mac Devlin, Arjuna Hayes, Ben and Jacob Waldman, Greg Wenger, mentors Gary Wenger and Mike Mintz, teacher-advisor Gary Menin. (Courtesy photo)

The Bromfield Invention Club (BIC) plans to help blind and visually impaired individuals by creating a unique cane-like device to help them navigate their environments safely and confidently. The team envisions a device that will collect sensory data from its surroundings and convey relevant information back to the user, with a goal of helping blind people achieve greater independence. This project, which is being undertaken with the funding and support of the MIT Lemelson Foundation, will build on the design of the club’s 2007 project, the A-POD, a device used to remotely and automatically assist Alzheimer’s patients and their care-givers with essential daily tasks.

The BIC is composed of more than 15 students in grades nine to 11 and two highly devoted parent mentors who have met regularly since December 2007 to brainstorm for the Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams program. This group is very motivated and many of its members have been active in academic events such as the science fair and the math team. Their diverse achievements are not solely academic; a number of team members have assumed leadership roles in student government and athletics.

Though losing team members and de-facto leaders Adam Katcher and Jon Fricchione to graduation, four members of the previous Bromfield InvenTeam will still be in high school next year, and their continued membership will bring experience to the team. However, new members—both student and parent alike—are needed to help bring this challenging concept to fruition.

Parent involvement is needed in all areas of design and engineering—including mechanical, electronic, and computer software. This is an opportunity for parents to get closely involved with their community school and neighborhood children by bringing real-world experience to the student design process and helping to advance technology education.

The project

Blindness and visual impairment are highly prevalent today. Ten million Americans are blind or visually impaired, according to the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB). It seems likely that this figure will climb with the growth of the elderly population in America. One of the main challenges that blind or visually impaired people encounter is “getting around” their environments. Visually impaired people currently have the option of using canes referred to as “long canes” or “white canes.” These are often unwieldy and provide limited benefits. The AFB reports that just 109,000 blind or visually impaired Americans use long canes. Seven thousand blind individuals prefer guide dogs. The BIC hopes to create a unique device that will be both unobtrusive and useful and that will either replace or complement existing mobility methods.

The BIC plans to use existing distance-sensing technology to gather information on the surroundings and feed it back to the user via a “virtual cane.” Laser technology is presently perceived to be the design basis for the invention described herein, but sonar and other noncontact technologies will be evaluated. The virtual cane would share several of the uses of a conventional cane, such as detecting walls and curbs. The additional functions of a virtual cane would aim to give blind individuals an enhanced freedom of movement in both familiar and unfamiliar territories. A conventional cane can sense only a few feet ahead of the person using it, and only one point at a time. The virtual cane could conceivably collect information on the layout of an entire area to produce a “picture” of the immediate surroundings. The device may also detect changes in the walking surface.

The award program

The Lemelson-MIT program is dedicated to honoring the acclaimed and unsung heroes who have helped improve our lives through invention. It inspires and encourages great inventors through various outreach programs such as Lemelson-MIT InvenTeams, a noncompetitive, team-based national grants initiative for high school students. The cornerstone of the Lemelson-MIT program is a prestigious awards program that includes the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT prize. The program was established in 1994 at the nation’s premier technological university, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, by one of the world’s most prolific inventors, Jerome Lemelson (1923-1997), and his wife, Dorothy. It is funded by the Lemelson Foundation and administered by MIT’s School of Engineering. The Lemelson-MIT program recognizes outstanding inventors, encourages sustainable new solutions to real-world problems, and enables and inspires young people to pursue creative lives and careers through invention.

The BIC plans to continue development work over the summer; prototype components have already been purchased. Anyone interested in helping out is invited to contact Brian Lynch at 978-456-3570 or brianalynch@msn.com.