振动手套助盲者“看”世界

Vibrating gloves will soon replace the white cane to help blind people ‘see’ their surroundings.

不久的将来，振动手套将取代盲杖帮助盲人“看见”周围的环境。

This is the prediction of a British team who has developed a prototype glove, dubbed SenSei, that provides vibration cues to a wearer.

英国一个团队做出了上述预测。该团队已经发明了振动手套的样板，取名为“SenSei ”，能通过振动给使用者提示。

The glove features a battery-operated ultrasonic senor on the back of the glove, which emits different levels of sound similar to a car’s parking sensor.

这种手套的背部安装有电池驱动的超声传感器，会发出不同等级的声音来提示使用者，类似汽车的泊车传感器。

Ultrasound waves are sent out, hit the obstacle, and when they return to the glove, they vibrate the fingers.

传感器会发出超声波，遇到障碍物后再反射回手套，然后让手指振动。

Different patterns and intensities let the user know how their distance between objects.

使用者可通过振动的不同模式及强度，来判断与障碍物之间的距离。

The glove was designed by two students at Nottingham University who wanted to develop a gadget that could be used without much training.

这种振动手套由两位诺丁汉大学（Nottingham University）的学生设计，他们想做一个可以轻松上手使用的小装置。

‘At present, the attachment is quite large, but we are working on a new system containing a microprocessor that is smaller and not as heavy,’ Raivat Luthura, one of the designers told Julia Pierce at The Engineer.

目前，附加装置还太大，但我们正在开发一个带有微处理器的系统，比现在的更小且更轻。”振动手套的发明者之一，瑞瓦特•路瑟拉（Raivat Luthura）在工程师杂志（The Engineer）的采访中，对记者茱莉亚•皮尔斯（Julia Pierce）说道。

The design recently won £1,000 ($1,540) and first prize in the Entrepreneurship and Business Competition run by Nottingham University Business School.

这一设计近日获得诺丁汉大学商学院“企业家精神及商业竞争”一等奖，奖金1000英镑。

‘This will also make it more aesthetically pleasing. We’re going to use the money from the competition for further development of the device,’ Mr Luthura added.

“这种手套也将会变得更美观。我们打算利用这笔奖金对手套进行提升与完善。”路瑟拉补充道。

It follows the launch of a similar device last year which helps people who are blind and visually impaired to learn Braille.

在振动手套之前，2017年曾出现一项类似产品，能帮助盲人或视觉受损的人学习盲文。

Vibrating motors at the knuckle of each finger in the gloves buzz to tell a wearer to press a corresponding key, and the system tells them which letter they are typing.

安装在手套里各个指关节的震动马达会发出嗡嗡声，提示使用者按下相应的键，系统同时发出相应字母的读音。

And the gloves even teach the wearer when they are not paying attention.

当使用者注意力不集中时，手套也能进行教学。

‘The process is based on passive haptic learning (PHL),’ said Thad Starner, a Georgia Tech professor who is also the technical lead on Google’s Project Glass.

“这种程序基于消极触觉学习（passive haptic learning ）。”乔治亚州的一位技术教授，萨德•斯塔勒（Thad Starner）说道。斯塔勒也是谷歌眼镜的技术领导。

‘We’ve learned that people can acquire motor skills through vibrations without devoting active attention to their hands.

“我们已经意识到，人们不用刻意集中精力在手上，仅通过振动便可获得运动技能。”

There has also been an increase in so-called ‘smart canes’ that use sonar to let blind people know, through vibrations, if there are objects ahead.

同样地，“智能拐杖”也层出不穷，这种拐杖利用声纳装置发出振动提示盲人前方的障碍。

Like the vibrating gloves, these SmartCane mimic the capabilities of bats, using sonar to detect objects in the surrounding environment.

与振动手套相似，智能拐杖模仿蝙蝠，通过声纳来探测周围环境的物品。

Ultrasound waves are sent out and, when they return to the cane, they vibrate on the relevant side of to warn of an obstacle ahead.

拐杖发射出的超声波，遇到障碍物后反射回拐杖，然后拐杖相应的一侧便进行振动，以警告使用者前方有障碍。

According to the World Health Organisation, 285 million people are estimated to be visually impaired worldwide.

据世界卫生组织（World Health Organization）的调查，世界范围内估计有两亿八千五百万人口视觉受损。

Almost 90 per cent of these live in developing countries, with India home to the most, at 12 million.

其中，近90%居住在发展中国家，而印度视觉受损人口最多，约有一千两百万。

Vocabulary

prototype：样板

cue：提示

ultrasonic：超声波

microprocessor：微处理器

Braille：布莱叶盲文

knuckle：指关节

sonar：声纳装置