I first thought of those whiny, flying drones, but I suppose terrestrial drones might also be tossed in. This would not be something you hold onto, like the guide vacuum cleaner, or a robodog.
So what could the autonomous drones do for blind people? I know someone posted a link to a video of a robot doing kitchen things a while back.
By OldBear, 27 May, 2024
Forum
Assistive Technology
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Got there in a weird way
As a little side entertainment, the thought struck me after coming across something in a Google search about people killing weeds growing on their roofs with drones. I was just trying to verify something I remembered from, Black Elk Speaks, by John G. Neihardt, about weeds growing on Black Elk's dirt roof, a Lakota medicine man who was blind in his old age.
Please watch the Expanse show
The Expanse, a sify space TV Series on Amazon prime, shows a blind man navigating space ship with the help of drones.
It's a bit too far in to the future, so that the drones are able to directly stream the video feed in to his mind, but still, the drones basically fly in front of him, effectively acting as a self-navigating, flying cane.
I believe it's in the last season of the show. And just FYI, the guy gets killed soon.
Lottie
Has your self-driving car shipped yet?
I suppose, if they ever get…
I suppose, if they ever get the AI image descriptions to work without making up a bunch of things, it could be useful to have near-real-time, aerial descriptions of locations... Or the types of weeds growing on one's roof. It's usually palm trees and cacti growing in the rain gutters for me.
Accessible drone showcase on the blind life on YouTube
I saw this topic and I saw this video recently on YouTube where Sam from the blind life YouTube channel has an accessible drone. The link is below.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=KF8Jny6Rgok&si=Q-OPgvoKqaAVADkq
HOVERAir X1
Thanks for posting that. It's interesting. I guess the video could be used, since it's following you, to either ask someone questions about an area, or have AI describe it, if that ever becomes a common thing.
Wow
Thanks applevis! I follow Sam sometimes but didn't know about this video. Now I am very attempted to buy this shit (positively). Nice video and concept.
Hover Pet
Ya, I'm also considering getting one one of these days. Perhaps, just to have a pet drone.
Exactly
I can't think of any real usecase for us but as you so ellegantly said, just like a pet drone. A (blind) friend of mine had one back in 2015 or so.
Restrictions
Security-minded folk may not like such drones at their offices or in their homes.
I never thought of launching…
I never thought of launching a hover drone inside of a regular room, like a home or an office. I do know someone with a two-story house, where half the house has a very high ceiling. I guess you could fly a drone in there. Have it deliver a sandwich upstairs, or something. Being that everything has a camera and a mic connected to the web in it nowadays, I don't know what security issue would be exclusive to a drone being used as an accessibility tool.