Walking with the blind
In a ground-shattering innovation that revolutionized the way people perceived the blind world, an IT engineer from Rajasthan Technical University, Anirudh Sharma, has designed a shoe for the blind as an attempt to facilitate their transition towards normalcy: Le Chal. The young researcher from Hewlett-Packard labs is certainly redefining the boundaries for the visually challenged all over the world by pragmatically modifying technology to fill in where the sense of vision cannot. The first prototype of this very aptly named haptic shoe Le Chal, which stands for ‘take me there’ in Hindi, was made by Sharma during an MIT Media Lab Workshop hosted at COEP, and was featured in MIT review in August 2011. The immense appreciation received by the shoe is only conducive to his future plans, which are varied and elaborate. The blind needn’t do anything more than simply orally relay their commands regarding the destination and the android device takes care of the navigation. The pioneering mind of Anirudh Sharma that is to be credited for the success of Le Chal works with the motive of empowering the blind to ascend to a whole new platform of not only liberation from their physical dependence, but also societal acceptance. Le chal takes us one step closer to a utopian society where the blind can lead their lives with ease and comfort.