For visually impaired students, attending practical classes in engineering and robotics courses poses a double challenge. In universities and schools, the lack of accessibility in laboratories and the lack of equipment that meets their needs prevents them from performing simple tasks, in addition to putting the safety of these students at risk. In order for blind or visually impaired people to be able to safely assemble electrical circuits, read measurements and even develop automated projects using programming logic, electrical engineer Giordano Arantes created a low-cost device in a doctoral research study conducted at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Feec) at Unicamp. Called the Assistive Prototype, the device has tactile sensitivity and sound resources and can be connected to a cell phone application.
A pioneer in the development of assistive technologies for people with visual impairments, FEEC professor Luiz César Martini, who lost his sight in 1995, supervised the doctorate. Arantes emphasizes that the professor also played a fundamental role as the main tester of his devices throughout the work. “Giordano created something unprecedented in Brazil and, from what I know, in the world. In comparison, I would say that Braille, which is indispensable in the life of a blind person, would be a bicycle; and the prototype he built, a propeller plane. With a bicycle, we can move around well on land, but to cross an ocean and go further, we need to use another vehicle”, says the advisor. “Before, a blind person could not make their own electrical circuit without running the risk of burning themselves, for example, because a metal plate is used, to which the parts need to be welded.”
Arantes cites the mandatory quotas for people with special needs in federal universities and schools, established in 2017 in Brazil, and the popularization of robotics classes in elementary, high school, and technical schools as some of the main motivations for his work. “Unicamp recently announced that it will also have quotas for people with disabilities.” Since the focus was to meet the needs of the blind, the now PhD in engineering conducted bibliographic research involving theoretical readings on assistive technology and teaching, legislation aimed at the inclusion of people with disabilities, and guidelines and references for the education of people who are blind or have low vision. His pieces explore touch and hearing as elements of learning.
The assistive prototype has three parts that work independently. With a total cost of R$500, the device has already attracted the interest of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Despite its focus on students, the invention is intended for anyone with visual impairment. To develop it, Arantes took as a basis two devices that are mandatory in engineering, programming and robotics: protoboard – a breadboard that allows the temporary assembly of electronic circuits without the need for soldering, a device used to test connections and components in electronics projects – and the multimeter – a device that reads measurements such as voltage and current. All the parts were designed and produced by the researcher, who used a 3D printer.
The advisor considers that, despite the growing attention of governments to the urgency of including people with disabilities in schools, universities and other spheres of society, it is necessary to increase investments in assistive research in the country. “Giordano’s work is pioneering in the world. Even so, much more needs to be done. There is no field of work for assistive engineers in Brazil. To continue this study, support is needed.”
The assistive prototype
In laboratories, workshops and factories, the protoboard serves a variety of purposes. Resistors, sensors, switches, and other components are attached to its surface to create a variety of systems. These parts must be fitted into specific contact points and then connected in series or parallel using integrated conductive tracks located on the bottom of the board. According to the professor, carrying out this entire process is difficult for those who cannot see, as there is no tactile signaling indicating where each part should be.
The importance and versatility of protoboard, combined with the lack of options on the market that meet the needs of blind or visually impaired people, influenced the researcher's decision to develop an accessible version of the board. Arantes chose plastic as the manufacturing material because this product allows for safe use.
Following the theoretical guidelines, legislation and Martini's guidance, the researcher made a plate sectioned into blocks. Inside it, there is a network of wires, electrically connected. Like all protoboard, on the surface, there are points where sensors, switches and other components should be placed. Throughout the upper part of the platform, plastic barriers arranged in vertical and horizontal lines serve as spatial orientation, through touch. In this way, the person can manipulate, put and take off parts, change their position and experiment with different elements and combinations.
In his project, Arantes developed two protoboards. So that visually impaired people can assemble automated devices using the assistive prototype, the electrical engineer equipped one of the two with a microcontroller and created Progvox, a cell phone application with programming commands ready to be selected. In order to create the application, the researcher based his work on the Dosvox assistive system, developed especially for visually impaired people at UFRJ, and on the function talkback of Android phones. Progvox is now available for download, for free.
Thus came the Protoboard for Sensors and Electronic Components. “This platform connects via bluetooth with the application, which provides options for the person to decide what they want to do and then work with the programming without having to type each line of code, since all they need to do is use the programming logic”, says the researcher. The command options are transmitted via audio from the cell phone and, to select the desired functions, a computer keyboard is used. Arantes included three types of sensors in the piece, so that the user can create different projects. “You can set up, for example, an automatic alarm, a light that turns on when the room gets dark or even program the watering of a plant”, explains the electrical engineer.
The talking multimeter completes the assistive prototype created by Arantes. Equally essential in engineering and robotics, inside and outside laboratories, the portable device is used to obtain readings of measurements such as direct or alternating voltage, resistance and electric current in a circuit. The models found on the market have a switch so that the user can choose what they want to measure, in addition to a display on which the reading result appears. If the user is unable to know which measurement option they are selecting or see the value displayed on the screen, explains Martini, the user will not be able to determine what they are measuring or the value of the measurement.
With the goal of creating an assistive multimeter for the blind and visually impaired, Arantes added tactile and auditory functions to the equipment, which has buttons that allow users to select measurement options – written in Braille. By pressing each button, the user can know what they are selecting and confirm the desired measurement type. After the reading is performed, an audio message informs the result. Instead of using a microcomputer, the researcher, to reduce the cost of the project, embedded a microcontroller and sensors in the multimeter. His work also involved a programming stage and the creation of a library with around 250 audio files.
