Vista Wearable: Seeing through Whole-Body Touch without Contact

Using the sense of touch is one of the most natural methods of navigation available to the blind. In this work, we propose a method to enhance a person´s use of touch for surroundings awareness by placing range sensors coupled with small vibrators on the surface of their body. Our device, Vista Wearable, seeks to enhance a person´s sense of physical awareness with their surroundings by providing hap tic feedback that directly corresponds with distance to nearby objects and obstacles. We constructed an array of connected range-sensors and vibrators that can be worn close to the skin for testing in controlled real and virtual environments. We then built small and unobtrusive devices that contain the range-sensor, vibrator, and a wireless Bluetooth interface, so that the user can configure and wear the units on their body where necessary without wires. Preliminary testing of the devices shows promise in real world applications including as a travel aid for the blind.