Innovations with Sole Last year we read about innovations for the blind like retinal implants and a white cane that gives the user information via echo location. Now, there is another innovation being developed, GPS shoes for the blind. Anthony Vipin Das, an eye surgeon, along with a team of researchers, has been developing haptic shoes that use vibration and GPS technology to guide the blind. What is a haptic shoe? I read up on the project in a TED blog posted on March 3, 2013 by Karen Eng at the following link:http://blog.ted.com/2013/03/03/soul-to-sole-eye-surgeon-anthony-vipin-das-has-developed-shoes-that-see-for-the-blind/ Interestingly, the short video showing people using the shoes isn't audio described, so I can only report on what is written on the blog. Anthony states, "The shoe basically guides the user on the foot on which he's supposed to take a turn. This is for direction. The shoe also keeps vibrating if you're not oriented in the direction of your initial path, and will stop vibrating when you're headed in the right direction. What, you may ask, is TED? TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design. According to the website, www.ted.com, "TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. What do you think about this new technology?
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