Smart Wheelchair wins Assistive Technology Design Competition
Assistive Technology Design Competition was organised from June 1 to June 8 at Thapathali campus with the motto of “improving lives of people with disabilities using technology”. The competition was focused on designing assistive technology for people with disabilities. There were 105 participants and 105 ideas to help people with disabilities. The ideas were categorised into three themes:
Software:
· Speaking whiteboard.
· Money recognition and transaction
· Communication problem in education and expression
Electronics:
· Navigation, object detection for visually impaired
· Sensing surrounding orientation and 360.
· Color detection and Dress identification
Mechanical:
· Mobility for handicapped
· Smart wheelchair
· Stair-climbing wheelchair
Winners:
First: Smart Wheelchair:
The problem of people with the locomotive disorder is that they cannot move their hand to move the wheelchair. They made a prototype of EEG (Electroencephalography) based Smart Wheelchair. Voice and gesture could come out as a troublesome approach for wheelchair control but brainwave could act as a most effective means. The solution is feasible within the given time frame. As no such product is readily available in the local market as of now, their solution is unique.
Second: Interactive Assistive Map
It’s a platform for differently-abled people almost like Google Maps. The idea is of an interactive map application that combines crowd sourced information on places that support universal design with information on roads generated from GIS data. It also lets disabled users add their own routes, vote on others’, and in the future will track disabled-friendly vehicles once they are brought to Kathmandu.
Third: Cool ‘V’ and ‘My Sight”
My Sight proposed a low-cost Braille printer to comfort the visually impaired person. Braille is the language of the blind while reading with six dots. That has become a major obstacle for them. They cannot go to normal schools like us. They read books with braille but their technique isn’t that advanced. There are Braille embossers manufactured in foreign but even the price. Small-volume braille printers cost between $1,800 and $5,000 and large-volume ones may cost between $10,000 and $80,000 which is not affordable for common people in the context of Nepal. The product was targeted at the person above the age of seven.
Cool V is all about making speaking whiteboard. This project identifies the travelling at long distant for many people to get the education and attempt to assist people to be educated just as they actually exist in the Classroom. Though it was initiated to assist people with disabilities, it can be very much useful for any kinds of persons. The Project, Talking White Board is a distributed system that functions as an intermediate medium for communication between the Teacher and Students far apart. It held the property to share the information between the Teacher and Students in all the best way possible.
About Organisers:
Disaster Hack, a San Francisco based tech INGO, in partnership Tribhuvan University, Curtin University, and PAC Asia, Locus, RAC Thapathali, WLIT, Makervalley, Swopna Digital organized the first-ever the AT-Hackathon at Ignition Lab, Thapathali Campus. Ignition Lab is an innovation lab serving Tribhuvan University as well as project enthusiasts. They provide access to 3d printers and other technologies to solve humanitarian challenges, generate ideas, develop businesses, or work on personal projects. They specialize in 3d printing solutions in the bio-medical field, rapid prototyping, incubation, business/product development, custom 3d printer designs, large format printing, recycling. They are founded upon the belief that technology should be openly accessible to all, that’s why our lab is free for everyone to use. You can connect to Ignition Lab on Facebook.
