[gps-talkusers] Re: "Prototype for Autonomy: Pathway for the Blind" project wins top honors at Intel International Science and Engineering Fair

Hi all,
This list is for discussion of all GPS related, it does not need to be
Sendero GPS.
Have a great new year everyone.
Chris
On Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:34:51 -0500, Alex Parks <mehgcap@xxxxxxx>
wrote:

>Hi all,
>This is not Sendero, but I have seen gps-related posts and those 
>"posters" are still on the list so I figured I would pass this 
>along.  The vibrating alert is a good idea, especially for 
>deaf-blind users of even a bn or vs gps system.
>
>Have a great day,
>Alex
>
> ---- Original Message ------
>From: "BlindNews Mailing List" <BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Subject: "Prototype for Autonomy: Pathway for the Blind" project 
>wins top honors at Intel International Science and Engineering 
>Fair
>Date sent: Mon, 31 Dec 2007 15:56:59 -0500
>
>Xinhua Net (China View), China
>Thursday, December 27, 2007
>
>"Prototype for Autonomy: Pathway for the Blind" project wins top 
>honors at Intel International Science and Engineering Fair
>
>Each year, 1,400 high-school students from more than 40 countries 
>are invited to compete in the prestigious Intel International 
>Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF), the world's largest 
>precollege science contest.  The select group of young scientists 
>is chosen from the several million students who compete in local 
>and regional science fairs throughout the year.  Participants 
>compete for $3 million in scholarships and prizes, presenting 
>projects in 15 categories like medicine, biochemistry, computer 
>science and zoology.  Earning top honors isn't the only goal for 
>contestants.  Nineteen percent (or 274) of the finalists at the 
>2005 competition held last month have already begun the process 
>to patent their projects.
>
>Ammem Abdulrasool, a senior at the Illinois Junior Academy of 
>Science, won top honors at this year's Intel ISEF for his 
>project, "Prototype for Autonomy: Pathway for the Blind." He 
>walked away with $70,000 in prize money and a free trip to 
>October's Nobel Prize ceremony.  Abdulrasool developed technology 
>that allows visually impaired individuals to navigate themselves 
>from one location to another by using the Global Positioning 
>System.  Individuals wear a half-kilo Walkman-size device, a 
>bracelet on each arm and a pair of earphones.  After entering a 
>starting and ending location into a personal digital assistant 
>(PDA), they are guided with verbal commands that tell them when 
>and in what direction to turn.  Simultaneously, a bracelet 
>vibrates signaling the correct direction.  To test his device, 
>Abdulrasool recruited 36 blind adults and asked them to visit 
>five landmarks in his neighborhood.  The navigational tool saved 
>people an average of 26 minutes in travel time and reduced the
> number of errors (wrong turns and missed locations).  "Looking 
>at how hard it was for them to travel and how they were dependent 
>on everyone else motivated me to do something," he said.  
>Abdulrasool hopes are applying for a patent and then plan to 
>market the product commercially.
>
>    In the fair's 56-year history, a number of projects have been 
>implemented for commercial use.  Michael Nyberg, a 2001 
>competitor, hoped to reduce the number of West Nile virus 
>infections through acoustics.  With a bucket of mosquito larvae 
>and a sound generator, Nyberg discovered that a 24 kHz frequency 
>resonated with the natural frequency of mosquitoes' internal 
>organs: larvae that absorbed the acoustic energy would explode.  
>His sound-emitting device, Larvasonic, is now sold online 
>(www.larvasonic.com).  Tiffany Clark, a 1999 competitor, found 
>evidence that bacteria produced the methane gas found inside coal 
>seams in Wyoming's Powder River Basin.  This suggested that 
>injecting nutrients into coal seams might provide an unlimited 
>supply of natural gas.  A Denver-based technology firm is now 
>continuing Clark's high-school research.  And someday soon, blind 
>people around the world may be wearing bracelets that issue GPS 
>commands.
>
>
>http://news.xinhuanet.com/edu/2007-12/27/content_7323918.htm
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Chris Grabowski
- Customer Support and Product testing
Phone: 888-757-6810 EXT. 113
        Email: chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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