Caption: The Texas A&M University team and their NOVA cane prototype. Credit: Taylor Phillips-Rodriguez

Four engineering students at Texas A&M University have developed a white cane attachment that detects objects and helps the user navigate around them using an ultrasonic sensor and a variety of vibrations.

Electronics systems engineering technology students Garrett Friedrichs, Hunter Schwedler, Brady Langston, Jason Belmares and Lathan Moore spent more than a year developing the Navigational and Object Visual Assistant (NOVA), which uses an ultrasonic sensor and vibration motors to alert white cane users of any obstacles above the waist with specific vibration patterns. The team also created a mobile application that interacts with NOVA to signal directions to the user (eg. turn left, turn right).

“[NOVA] has no auditory feedback at all, which is a big thing that visually impaired students stressed they wanted,” said Schwedler. “They need to closely listen to their surroundings and any sort of unnecessary sound can be distracting.”