‘Spectacles’ For The Blind

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30939, 21 December 1965, Page 1

‘Spectacles’ For The Blind

Ultra-sonic “spectacles" which will enable the blind to assess the distance and nature of objects around them by the pitch and quality of signals received aurally will be developed at the University of Canterbury by the new professor of electrical engineering (Dr. Leslie Kay), who arrived yesterday.

The device, which has been proved feasible but requires a great deal more research and refinement, springs from Professor Kay’s famous investigation of the “sonar” system of bats which produced the “torch,” a sonar instrument pointed manually by the blind to detect obstacles. The investigation became the subject of a widely-shown 8.8. C. television documentary film. the ultra-sonic “spectacles" are expected to look like spectacles and give a much more accurate scan than the “torch."

Professor Kay said that he looked forward to close association with psychologists, zoologists, biologists, medical men, and industry, as this had been a fruitful collaboration in England, where he was head of the electrical engineering department of the Lanchester College of Technology in Coventry. He also hoped to work closely with organisations for the blind. The “torch,” resembling a flashlight, signalled the size of objects in the path of the blind but it had to be pointed at them, said Professor Kay. The “spectacles” would scan the area of normal vision and signal through both ear-pieces.

“The idea is to convert the whole special environment into a sound pattern from which the blind person can discern the direction and distances of all objects and something of their nature," he said. “Ultra-sonics will illuminate the area. The pitch of the signal will be proportionate to distance; its quality will indicate its character.” Explaining the last feature, Professor Kay said middle C

in music had the same pitch on piano or violin but the instruments could be distinguished by quality of the note. Training in binaural perception would be a matter for psychologists, educationists, and others. Professor Kay said this research was a personal project for which finance was being negotiated. In the wider field at the university he would have special interest in power-systems control, telecommunications, and heavy-current engineering, where his earlier experience had been concentrated.

Electrical-engineering education generally had tended to be very broad but there was now a demand for increasing specialisation. The needs of Industry must be studied. There was greet scope for development of undergraduate, poet-graduate, and higher training in all fields, he said.

Professor Kay is accompanied by his wife, a son and daughter in their teens, and another daughter who is just starting school.