2004 Botball Website Team
Brenda Duong
Syed Hashmi
Anh Hoang
Omar Nachawati
Michael Samson
For more information regarding assistive robotics and blind driving, refer to
our bibliography page.
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Solutions
to Problems
See again::::::::::::::
A lot has to be done in order to make
robotic technology applicable to the solving of the problem to make people who
are visually impaired to gain vision. Robotic technologies are associated
with many fields in the subject, so it is extremely important that there is a
through coordination between many different types of technologies in order to
make sure that the quandary has been effectively solved. There are numerous
factors, which to mention, are a rigid challenge to unravel the stalling of
this technology.
Many different factors are related to
each other and this promotes the obligation of making sure that all equipment
used to solve visual impairment are successful to accomplish the objective of
this research: to erase the disability, and virtually as much as possible.
People who are blind are the one’s who are facing the most difficulty, not
only in our society but also increasingly throughout undeveloped countries
such as Iraq and Afghanistan. The cost of surgery and other methods of
correcting it are exceeding expensive and are not available in third-world
countries.
Making it possible to deliver
technology at significantly reduced costs can help more disabled people
throughout the world, whom all deserve to be benefit, to receive as much as
present technology would provide. Reducing the size of transistors and other
components in semiconductor technology can make it possible to produce
significantly smaller electrical components and circuits, which could
possibly make a visually impaired patient’s equipment be less or totally
unseen. Developing many alternative sources of generating electrical energy
can help empower the eradication of solving the problem of visually
impairment.
Implanting millions of solar chips in
one’s body, such as hands, arms, feet and even into one’s head can help produce
electricity through solar means. Also, by making bio-chemical systems that
react with nutrients or chemical reactions in the body to produce electricity
could be supportive. By gathering electrical energy in the above mention ways
could help make it possible to eliminate the use of disposable batteries or
ever to change batteries again. Also, by implementing Artificial Intelligence
(AI) into the system that is used to power vision, memory modules could be
generated and processed by the system’s processor to provide feedback to a
logic unit (inside the processor and/or other components) so as to promote
sustainable correction/improvement as the processor would learn more about
the person more specifically. This would help this assistive technology to be
more ‘personalized’ to the person. Incorporating more work of programmers,
based on a strong synchronization among calculations and logical decision
making, can help to produce more logical scripts, which would ultimately
result better results and overcoming the most neglected obstacle of a
selected disability: vision.
The implementation of the usage of
many different sensors, ultraviolet, magnetic, infra red could relay the
information that is supposedly to be collected by one’s eyes through a newly,
revolutionary developed optical fibers connected to one’s brain. These fibers
should also be significantly reduced in size (like the ones used today) by
developing manufacturing equipment that produces such products with greater
sophistication, enabling such things to be ‘miniaturized’. Making cost
effective solutions to address the possible solution of this disability are
critical to the material used, and even the machinery used in the process,
which must be up to the standard demanded by the above proposed clarification
for solving this complex labyrinth.
Also, making it possible that the
next installed robotic device in a visually impaired patient would transmit
wireless signals, which could be implemented and analyzed further by optical
doctors, technicians and other people related to the field to implement
different customizations to settings, whether to add changes (e.g. new
scripts or codes for the hardware to perform a better job), edit settings and
apply whatever technologies arise further ahead in the future to make sure
that it is possible to upgrade the system of such a patient when the
opportunity arises.
To Drive:::::::::
Driving is yet another challenge to
be solved. So far, it appears that assistive robotics technology in this
sector is seriously neglected. There is not enough facilities in cars for
people with disabilities, especially the visually impaired. Artificial
Intelligence has proved to be some what effective, but usually limited to
people or governments who can afford it. The current state is that Global
Positioning Systems (GPS) can only be seen visually on an LCD (Liquid Crystal
Display), but not control a car effectively to make it completely
‘automatic’. Being automatic means that cars will eventually become totally
under the control of a computer in a car, to perform a wide variety of
functions. Car companies and research development centers should start
concentrating developing cost effective, yet highly effective technologies to
eliminate the requirement of reasonable vision for driving. Not only Global
Positioning Systems (GPS) should coordinate with the computer of a car, but
to thoroughly make it possible not to have a driving wheel or accelerator to
prove to possibly be the most effective contribution to the visually impaired:
to make them more independent and be able to get around places by means of
driving.
The car, being controlled by a
computer that uses feedback-processing technology via satellite, can make it
possible to type out the destination on a laptop or a computer in a car or
even possible speech recognition systems can process the input data from the
traveler, and automatically guide the car to safely reach its destination.
Having such a processing system that
uses real-time communication and processing can help the significant
reduction of any automobile catastrophe on the road and car accident rates
would be reduced extensively. For example, employing this assistive
technology will ensure that all traffic laws would be obeyed. However, if any
system in a car malfunctions, an appropriate service center will be notified
that the system is malfunctioning and needs to be inspected. Also, as there
would be a two-way communication in this highly integrated assistive system,
if there is no 2 way communication, it must mean that the GPS system of the
vehicle has malfunctioned, making it possible for the service company to
contact the person in authority of the car.
Proving to be the best possible
miracle for the disable, the above ideas truly give the visually impaired a
prospect to live a more contented life.
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