Special cane for the visually impaired

A daily wage earner in a confectionary making unit in Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu has developed a special mobility cane for the visually handicapped.The walking stick is working with the help of two battery cells and makes different sounds.

Anandan, a 'mithai master' in Kulasekharapatnam, who displayed the special cane fitted with a wheel at the bottom, at a seminar on 'Innovations for Human development,' told PTI that a specially fitted three-foot aerial to the cane, vibrates whenever the stick-holder comes across an obstacle.
On what prompted him to make the stick, Anandan said he became upset when he saw a blind man falling into a pit and struggling to regain control. From then on, he started working to develop a stick useful for the visually challenged.

He had first made a cane with seven wheels, making different sounds when it dashed against stones, pits, Anandan said adding S Gurumurthy of Swadeshi Jagaran Manch had advised him to go in for a lighter one, since that cane weighed about 24 KGs.

After working day and night, he had succeeded in developing the new 1.3 kg stick, fitted with earphone, toy car motor and a bell, by which the user can get the indication of pits and other obstacles, he said.

Short of fund for mass production, Anandan, who earns rs.100 a day, however, does not want to sell the rights of his invention, but would seek loans to market the product on his own.