Ever wished you were able to live out the experiences of a bat, or even the superhero Daredevil, who gets around through the clever use of ultrasonics? Steve Hoefer’s prototype Tacit haptic wrist rangefinder does just that, where you extend your hand (while wearing it, of course), letting the servos vibrate as you inch closer to an object such as a wall, while alerting you to stop or change your direction so that you do not end up with a broken nose or black eye. Needless to say, the closer you are to the stationary (or otherwise) object, the more pressure Tacit will put on your wrist.
According to Steve’s views on his first version of Tacit, My first version of Tacit was a headband with vibration motors that ran faster when objects came closer. But this design had a distracting “mad science” look, and most obstacles, like furniture, are below head level. I also found that motors vibrating against your skull will quickly drive you insane. I realized that it was my own sighted prejudice to want to attach vision-simulating sensors to the head. The hand is more directable and useful, and putting a device on the back of the wrist leaves the fingers free.” Is this cool or what?
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