— According to official figures in Russia more than 300 thousand people suffer from serious visual impairments. The real figure, according to experts, much more, — tells Rinat. — These people live near us: study, work, love. They are deprived of the opportunity to see the world, its beauty and harmony. But we can make their lives a little easier.

What key problems faced by visually impaired people in everyday life? Is the difficulty of determining the distance to objects, difficulty in detection of obstacles, and the inability to walk on unfamiliar routes. For solving these tasks are most commonly used guide dogs and canes. We decided to develop a fundamentally new device, which would help the rehabilitation of patients with vision problems. The project was completed thanks to a large-scale scientific and technical basis of the Ufa research Institute of eye diseases under the supervision of the Director of the Institute, Professor of Muharram Bikbov:.

Device virtual mapping space for the visually impaired looks like glasses and is worn on the head. But instead of lenses, in this case, using ultrasonic sensors — one of them sends a signal, the second perceives. In fact, scanning the space using the reflection of the sound wave. The range of sensors, from ten centimeters to five meters. Information from the sensors and then re-encoded in the audio signal. All this allows the person to learn information about the items that are in the neighborhood and avoid obstacles on the route. Thus, the glasses help the visually impaired patient to provide a "map" of the surrounding space.

There is a possibility of adjustment — for example, the room can make it more sensitive. And the person will be comfortable at home and on the street.

According to the scientist, the project is under implementation is a prototype to test. Clinical studies will be conducted on two patient groups — visually impaired and fully blind. Then you can display the device on the market.

Today glasses informs its owner about the obstacle, a normal audio signal (the closer the obstacle, the more intense and often sound). But in the future we plan to develop voice guidance — points will tell the patient how many meters remain to the obstacle, — says Rinat.

What can you say about the analogy? Today abroad produced ultrasonic canes for the blind, reports the obstacle through vibration. Cons of using this stick is that a blind person has to feel the surrounding space. In our case no additional movements are not required — person just wears glasses and does her thing. Again, our solution is much cheaper. The cost of points, according to preliminary estimates, will amount to four thousand rubles.

It adds a young scientist, the second phase of the project is to provide glasses navigation device — module GPS or GLONASS. What does it do? Alljust to provide routing of the patient over long distances.

— Imagine that visually impaired people have decided to get to the clinic. With the help of GPS it will be able to ask and plan a travel route. The navigation module will be responsible for the route in General, and ultrasound for orientation at close distances, — says Rinat Zainullin. People will get from point A to point B. Even if he never was in the area.