Blicycle: A Bicycle for the Blind

We worked on developing blicycle a bicycle for the blind. Blicycle is designed to be ridden in the closed, controlled environment of an outdoor track and incorporates a number of electronic, software, and mechanical modifications to an existing bicycle to make it accessible to the blind. We use computer vision to localize the bike with respect to the track, determine a desired steering angle for blicycle using this information, and communicate turning instructions to the rider using a vibrating handlebar interface. This project began with a contextual inquiry of our client, Brian, for whom we would design blicycle. After meeting with him and discussing his preferences and constraints, we began designing and prototyping a number of ideas for blicycle. We iterated on a number of different design ideas and met with Brian over the course of the semester for idea generation and user testing. By the end of the semester, in addition to completing a working prototype, we also learned a great deal about designing assistive technology. In the future, we would like to work more on this project in order to increase its robustness and reduce its chance of abandonment.