Progress page!!
as an introduction to this page ill give a brief rundown of the project i've been working on for about half a year:
Essentially, I've been working on developing a 'smart' wheelchair
The big focus has been navigation assitance and safety
The goal is to develop a product that can assist in the independent travel of wheelchair users
This applies more to those with severe disabilities who are incapable of travel by themselves
This is a big step towards independent living and ease of daily life for people who depend on wheelchairs.
Personally, I've worked with the safety features in the camera realm
We use a depth camera to detect objects and how far they are from the user
I only really helped with configuration and havent gotten to work much with this, but I really look forward to it!
I'd like to write a script that continuously checks the visual feed for terrain issues or objects that might be an issue
The big thing that I have worked on is the navigation assistance
To work on this, I first built a python script for ROUGH global positioning using the local IP as a prototype
When this worked, I then began working on other ways to increase accuracy of the program
Eventually, I (dr.Azab) purchased a usb gps module. It was super cool to interface with it and see how it worked
So I then wrote a python script to use the information that the GPS module gave
The gps module returns very precise coordinates
The coordinates can be used to give an exact location (much better than IP based)
Then, with the implementation of AI into the python script, the user can now
Request to go to a location and be given step-by-step directions to that location
The user is also told an estimated time of travel by wheelchair and estimated distance of travel
It was super fun to work with and I was so proud when it worked
I have lots of future plans for this project lined up, first being indor navigation without gps
Until then I am working on getting input from people with disabilities as to how this could help them
If you know anyone who may be impacted by this work, feel free to send the survey link to them:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSekDn8abm7cgisNGGJNtbZXOuSshNq_3gm0KokhuhcNN4LbSw/viewform?usp=dialog
So far I have gotten a few responses fromthe survey which is so cool and it makes me super happy
I hope to implement some of the things that people frequently request if feesable.
On top of this i've been making an effort to reach out in public to people in wheelchairs and just see whats up
I met one guy named Alex when I was in Texas for an internship. I walked to his place with him from the store
He told me that the biggest issue he faces is incline, as he did not have a very modern chair.
Stuff like that is great because it gave me firsthand experience to see how important things like motor assitance
Can be for people
Im working on a lot more with the project now and hopefully I can upload some pics to this page soon
If you actually read through this - or just any of it - thank you very much.