There are all sorts of DIY projects that catch on and turn into mass produced items, and the Sonar Garment, made by Lynne Bruning, might just be one of them. This item's purpose is to assist visually impaired people by navigating through the world and alerting them when there's an object standing in their way.

The alerting is done via a Ultrasonic Range Finder placed on the front of the garment, which is comprised of Lilypad main board, LV-MaxSonar ultrasonic range finder and a LilyPad vibe board. The range finder can be set to locate a solid object X distance in front of the user and turn the vibe board on alerting the user to stop before walking into a solid object.

 

It is a very smart idea that can really help visually impaired people, not to mention the fact that it is more discrete than other products used by these persons to navigate through daily life, such as walking sticks or seeing dogs.

 

This concept might not be a solution for every situation, but for going around an office or house, it might be a practical idea, although we are not talking here about a commercial product but a cool and highly interesting DIY project, at least for the time being.

 

To top off the creative approach, Lynne used the bat motive as style element as it is widely known that bats use ultrasonic sound to “see.” The bat motive also serves as cover for the technology involved, suggesting a very smart design approach.

 

According to Lynne herself, this project was inspired by attending the unveiling of the award winning facilities for Anchor Center for Blind Children designed by star architect Maria Cole, where she was approached by a former student that made her come with the idea of the Sonar Garment.

 

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