Wearable Computer Projects: Trinetra

Priya Narasimhan, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Asim Smailagic and Dan Siewiorek, Human Computer Interaction Institute

Trinetra aims to develop cost-effective assistive technologies to provide blind people with a greater degree of independence in their daily activities. The overall objective of the project is to improve the quality of life for the blind by harnessing the collective capability of diverse networked embedded devices to support navigation, grocery shopping, transportation, etc. To date, we have researched and developed a portable barcode-based solution involving an Internet- and Bluetooth-enabled cellphone to aid grocery shopping at the CMU campus convenience store, Entropy. We have also more recently extended this to assist the blind and visually impaired with their transportation needs, specifically, for the CMU campus shuttle.