title: Improving obstacle detection by redesign of walking canes for blind persons.
abstract: This paper describes an experiment in which the performance of cane walkers with the traditional straight long cane and a redesigned cane, the curved cane, was compared. The curved cane has a curve where the tip touches the ground. Participants were 18 experienced cane walkers who were totally blind. The aspects of cane walking that were investigated included obstacle detection, drop-off (slope) detection and walking speed. The performance with both canes was investigated in two different ways: (1) by means of constructed courses in which objective measures of cane walking were derived; and (2) by means of more qualitative measures based on the participants' experiences with the curved cane during a 3-week try-out period. Results showed that obstacle-detection was significantly better with the curved cane, whereas drop-off detection and walking speed were comparable for the two canes. The participants' experiences mirrored these results.
authors.affiliation: Developmental Psychology, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands. schellingerhout@psych.kun.nl
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schellingerhout
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Bongers
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: van Grinsven
authors.forename: A W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Smitsman
authors.forename: G P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Van Galen
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001766:Blindness / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D002183:Canes; D004867:Equipment Design; D006804:Ergonomics; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012656:Self-Help Devices