Two graduates of the University of Malawi have created a smart vision shoe project to help the visually impaired people to sense their surroundings.
The two are Dumisani Chikwembani aged 24, from Traditional Authority Machinjiri in Blantyre and Chimwemwe Chisomphe, 25, from Lilongwe. Both recently graduated with Bachelor of Science in Electronics.
The group’s team leader Chikwembani said they did not exactly design the shoe but rather they installed a system which would help the visually-impaired persons to know if they are stepping in water, if in front of the fire,and other obstacles.
He said: “This is based on the software such that if the obstacle is less than or is equal to 40cm from the people, and we put the distance based on the user’s presence. However, the circuit is covered on the shoe hence making it a smart vision shoe project.”
Chikwembeni has told ProjectM that for the user to be able to know that he or she is in water or in front of them there is fire or an obstacle, he has set different outputs including the sound which is there to differentiate between the three things.
However, he said lack of resources is the major challenge that they are facing. They need to have a GPS module for tracking the person but the equipment is very expensive and that is why they were forced to come up with an application called’ ’ADUMI’’ which can be installed in the user’s phone.
If the user has lost his or her direction, whoever has the user’s phone number, can just send a normal text location to the user and upon receiving the message, it automatically sends the message back to the user.
He further said that Malawi has so many people in the innovation industry but their projects have not been able to come into effect due to lack of resources.
Chikwembeni then asked the government through the Ministry of Education as well as well-wishers to solve some of the challenges facing innovators in the country.
“We are encouraging our service users to give it a try because it is a fantastic tool that can significantly enhance independence and improve their daily life. We are always on the lookout for innovative tools that can make life easier for our beloved brothers and sisters who were born blind,” he said.
Dumisani Chikwembani is available on: +265 996 28 72 52 .
