Coach Cane

For people who are blind or have low vision, learning to use the white cane.

The problem
Learning to use a white cane takes lessons with a specialist trainer, and many visually impaired individuals live far from one.
The idea
Coach Cane brings the lesson to them. The trainee stands in front of a laptop camera, and the trainer joins over a live video call.
The coach
While they practise, the computer watches how they hold and swing the cane, and says tips out loud, like “speed up”, so nothing depends on seeing the screen.

Cam 01 · 30 fpsGood technique00:00:00

SpokenGood technique.

Illustration · simulated readings

My part

All of the computer vision

Everything between the webcam and the spoken tip: how Coach Cane sees, what it measures and what it says.

01
See
Google's MediaPipe finds 33 points on the body and 21 on each hand, 30 times a second, right in the browser.
02
Measure
My own geometry turns those points into angles, measured against the trainee's shoulders and hips, so it works wherever the laptop sits.
03
Judge
It weighs a few seconds of movement at a time, never a single frame, so one glitch can't set off a tip.
04
Speak
One tip at a time, the most important first. When it isn't sure, it stays quiet rather than guess.

What it checks

All of the computer vision

Everything between the webcam and the spoken tip: how Coach Cane sees, what it measures and what it says.

Google's MediaPipe finds 33 points on the body and 21 on each hand, 30 times a second, right in the browser.

My own geometry turns those points into angles, measured against the trainee's shoulders and hips, so it works wherever the laptop sits.

It weighs a few seconds of movement at a time, never a single frame, so one glitch can't set off a tip.

One tip at a time, the most important first. When it isn't sure, it stays quiet rather than guess.