Virtual Robotics - The idea

I think that there are two use cases for good robotic simulation: education and prototyping.

Education

Robotics is fun, but it can be challenging to get into. It’s not nearly as easy as picking up a python book and making cool starter programs. It would be better to separate the hardware design and the software. With a virtual robot, a student could learn how to read data from the sensors and drive the servo motors. They could also see what happens to their virtual robots running their code in different environments. Having detailed debugging tools could allow the student to see exactly why their robot got stuck in the corner and kept running into the wall. After the student got a handle on the basics, they could put their virtual robot into more realistic environments where they could experience wheel slippage and sensor data degradation.  Running in more realistic environments could allow them to slowly learn to write robust software and even make unit tests for the robot in specific challenging areas. The last piece is to allow the student to modify the hardware in their virtual robot and see how their code would work in a slightly different robot or what more fine-grain sensors and motor controllers could allow their robot to do.

Prototyping

Serious robotics companies and teams have custom software to simulate their robot behavior. Many of them also have hardware-in-the-loop simulation. The software that I’m proposing here isn’t fundamentally different than what many already have. The biggest difference is that Virtual Robotics would be a flexible simulation framework where companies could tailor it to their needs be them aerospace, ground based automatic vehicles or even those that swim underwater. This would make developing custom simulation software from scratch unnecessary.

Virtual Robotics - The motivation

Robotics is really hard. You have to do hardware design and software design and each of these can impact the other. It would be nice if you could do both the hardware and software design in the computer before building real prototypes.

Digital Cane - The pitch

Having a vision impairment isn’t safe and it can make life really hard. Digital Cane helps by making everything around the blind person as simple and easy to process as a sighted person. Also, its head-mount camera makes picking up the subtleties of conversion a breeze.

Digital Cane - The fun part

Like my idea for helping the deaf, the fun challenge here is to get the right pairing of hardware and software that ‘just works.’ This should be like a new set of skin for the blind person. Ideally users would use the word ‘seamless’ to describe the product.

Digital Cane - The growth potential

There are over 1 million legally blind people in the US. If 1% of them buy one of these units per year that would $30 million in revenue per year.

Digital Cane - The monetization

The software and hardware would be sold as a set. I think it could sell for $3,000 per unit.

Digital Cane - The idea

The motivation

Life as a blind person is fairly challenging. Tools like guide dogs are nice, but it’s still hard to have the same quality of life as a non-impaired person.

The idea

There are two big areas where being blind is a big impediment: navigation/hazard avoidance and personal communication.

Navigation

Navigating streets and buildings can be dangerous for the blind; cars and stairways can be extremely hazardous. What blind people need is technology that allows them to use another sense to replace sight. I think the Microsoft Kinect sensor is nearly perfect for this job. A few well-placed sensors could measure the distances to most things around the blind person. Ideally, the size of the sensors would be smaller, because wearing four Kinect sensors could look rather silly. Nevertheless, these sensors would collect everything the blind person needs to traverse safely. The data from the sensors needs to get conveyed to the blind person. I think the best way to do that is a band around the chest or stomach. The band would have thousands of cell phone vibration motors. The motors would vibrate when there is an object close in that direction. The closer the object the more the vibration. The sensors would be angled at a slightly downward direction (towards the ground). This would result in the vision impaired person normall feeling a vibration when even ground is ahead and different vibrations when there is a staircase or other obstricle ahead. The Kinect sensors may need to get paired with longer range but coarser sensors that can ‘see’ cars. A special warning, perhaps auditory, should be issued when a fast moving object is approaching and might hit the user. I think with these sensors and the vibrator motors, blind people could see well enough not to need a stick or a guide dog.

Personal communication

Blind people are at a disadvantage when it comes to in-person communication. People can say as much with their posture, facial expressions, and gestures as with their words. To reach parity with people who can see, the blind need help. The Kinect sensor above could be useful to detect gestures, and maybe posture, but it couldn’t help with understanding people’s facial expressions. I think something like Google glass or some other small head-mounted camera would also be needed. Facial recognition and emotion recognition are now possible.  So, the user could know who the speaker is and what their face says about their mood.

The monetization

The software and hardware would be sold as a set. I think it could sell for $3,000 per unit.

The growth potential

There are over 1 million legally blind people in the US. If 1% of them buy one of these units per year that would $30 million in revenue per year.

The fun part

Like my idea for helping the deaf, the fun challenge here is to get the right pairing of hardware and software that ‘just works.’ This should be like a new set of skin for the blind person. Ideally users would use the word ‘seamless’ to describe the product.

The pitch

Having a vision impairment isn’t safe and doesn’t make life easy. Digital Cane helps by making everything around the blind person as simple and easy to process as a sighted person. Also, its head-mount camera makes picking up the subtleties of conversion a breeze.