5 ms·
Another thing to look out for in cities (and get people to correct if you can - report to the city, building owners, and so on): Things that stick out at head l
by lizzard 10y ago
Another thing to look out for in cities (and get people to correct if you can - report to the city, building owners, and so on): Things that stick out at head level that have no indication of their existence at ground level. Cane users would not feel an interruption and so would have no warning before getting cold-cocked right in the face. I notice this a lot where there are dramatic stairways that you can walk underneath. Best to have some sort of railing there.
- Turing_Machine 10y agoThis may be naive, but that sounds like a good use case for a head-mounted collision-avoidance system (like the ones in self-driving cars). I bet you could fit such a thing in a fairly light-weight headband nowadays.
- atomwaffel 10y agoOn the contrary: it's not naïve, it's far too advanced. This isn't a problem that needs to be solved with technology and by forcing people to wear a beeping device on their heads. You can just install a railing and make the environment safe for everyone. I suppose your solution would work as a stopgap, but it seems like poor design to make people adapt to human-made environments rather than building the environments in a way that works for everyone.
- tudorw 10y agowhile I agree that the best solution is a better environment, you could fit the sensor to the obstacle, and have it beep when something comes close :P
- TheGrumpyBrit 10y agoThat comes with all the additional requirements of a technological solution - power, maintenance, reliability etc. A simple barrier will continue to work even after the local kids have tagged it.
- vacri 10y agoI would not want to live/work/sit near such a thing.
- pc86 10y agoGreat, now we're going to see random beeping devices places around SF where people don't want the homeless to congregate.
- Turing_Machine 10y ago"This isn't a problem that needs to be solved with technology and by forcing people to wear a beeping device on their heads. You can just install a railing and make the environment safe for everyone" One problem with the "just install a railing" approach is that the environment changes. New stuff gets built. Temporary obstacles appear where there were none before. Not all obstacles are human-made (think about walking through the woods -- there will be no railings there, to be sure). Another problem with it is that the person who benefits (the blind person) is not the same person as the one who must be relied on to alleviate the problem and foot the bill. Also, why is wearing the headgear "forcing" while using a cane is not? I don't think anyone's being "forced" to do anything in either situation.
- x1798DE 10y agoI think another reason why "just install a railing" doesn't address the problem if you can't see, you're counting on everyone else realizing the problem and fixing it with a railing, whereas a head-mounted collision-avoidance system works whether or not anyone else realizes there's a problem. Ideally you'd have "defense in depth" such that your head-mounted collision avoidance system is just a fallback, but honestly it's one of those things where it would be best to take it into your own hands if possible.
- sperglord 10y agoOnly if they look like cool cyberpunk googles.
- 21 10y agoIt can be worse, on my way to work there was some sort of a nail sticking out of a wall at head level, that I almost ran into a few times (thin, and hard to see against wall), and I am a seeing person.
- vacri 10y ago> Things that stick out at head level... I'm a tall man (200cm/6'6") and walking down the street in the rain in Hanoi was a test of nerves, as mains power cables would shoot giant sparks at just about eye level...