Video
Revolutionizing indoor navigation: exploring O&M with Olin engineers
Howe Innovation Center helped students from Olin College of Engineering connect with disabled users in order to get authentic feedback on their indoor navigation app
In cooperation with the Howe Innovation Center, Olin College of Engineering students came to the Perkins campus to present an orientation and mobility (O&M) app co-designed and developed with the blind and visually impaired community as a part of a Social Technology Enterprise with Purpose (STEP) class.
Clew, a path retracing app, helps blind and visually impaired users navigate independently with a combination of voice directions, sound effects, and haptic feedback.
At Perkins, the students connected directly with people who understand the challenges of independent navigation in new spaces and who are early adopters of new technologies.
This was a critical opportunity for these young innovators to get real-time validation and feedback on the state of the product – from folks within the blindness community, as well as two orientation and mobility instructors.
Watch the collaboration in action in this brief video:
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