Keep my lawn mower…

[Brian Higgins]

Is there a way to keep a visually impaired person lawn mower going in a straight line, sensors or some other magic?

Brian Higgins
VA Researcher for blind mobility “Laser enhanced Echolocation” ClearPath Navigation


Sent from my iPhone

[Chris Albertson]

EDIT: after writing the below, I searched, and it seems someone already did this. You can download a “talking compass” app to your iPhone and it will tell you which way you are facing.. Use this with noise-cancelling earbuds like Apple AirPod Pro. Mine are good enough to block lawn mower noise.

End of EDIT.

That problem might not be different from a pilot trying to fly a straight line through clouds where he can not see out the windows. We tend to think about computers and sensors, but this flying in clouds problem was solved in the 1930s without using any modern electronics.

So, get a compass and stay on heading. If you can not see the compass, then perhaps the heading could be converted to an audio tone, or with some more effect, a “talking compass” that calls out either the current heading or tells you the deviation from a given direction.

In any case, the best platform might be an iPhone and some noise-cancelling earphones. The iPhone’s built-in sensors are perfect for this job

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[Brian Higgins]

Nice talking compass

Brian Higgins
VA Researcher for blind mobility “Laser enhanced Echolocation” ClearPath Navigation


Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 19, 2025, at 2:23 PM, Chris Albertson <alberts...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> EDIT: after writing the below, I searched, and it seems someone already did this. You can download a “talking compass” app to your iPhone and it will tell you which way you are facing.. Use this with noise-cancelling earbuds like Apple AirPod Pro. Mine are good enough to block lawn mower noise.

> To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hbrobotics/B03AC9B6-963C-4CDE-8BFC-4F7F54FA04A9%40gmail.com.

[Brian Higgins]

Thanks 

Legally blind (low vision) with 2 degrees field of view. There are thousands of variations of vision loss only 10 percent of legally blind are totally blind.  I have a small flat lawn, my issue is I can’t tell if I’m mowing straight line and ever other row I get down on my hands and knees to see how bad my mow job is an see what I missed. I tried long distance objects to keep me on the straight and narrow but the far objects are random. I will walk around with one or two of the four talking compass to see how they work. One of them specifically said for the blind.

Thanks ever one vision loss can be frustrating sometimes.

Brian Higgins

VA Researcher for blind mobility “Laser enhanced Echolocation” ClearPath Navigation 

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 20, 2025, at 5:39 PM, cmay...@gmail.com wrote:

I'm not sure it is wise for a blind person to be operating potentially lethal equipment, but let's assume for some strange set of circumstances it makes sense. No rocks, borders with large enough easements, etc. 

I think suggesting noise canceling headphones is making a bad situation significantly worse and more dangerous. 

This may be similar to a situation I find myself in, sailing at night, with the instruments turned way down to reduce light.

And I would assume a blind person's other senses are more heightened than a sailor, so use your other senses!

External sounds, the feel of the wind on your face, knowing the slope.of the lawn you are mowing, etc.

It's trivial to keep pretty straight with a single point of reference such as a sound or wind direction.

Try closing your eyes and walk using just a talking compass, and see how quickly you can adjust and keep straight 

Sometimes the best solution is the low tech one.

On Saturday, April 19, 2025 at 10:59:43 AM UTC-7 Brian Higgins wrote:

Is there a way to keep a visually impaired person lawn mower going in a straight line, sensors or some other magic?

Brian Higgins
VA Researcher for blind mobility “Laser enhanced Echolocation” ClearPath Navigation


Sent from my iPhone

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[Gmail]

I wonder if ChatGPT would be up to the task. 💡! 

Thomas

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On Apr 20, 2025, at 7:32 PM, cmay...@gmail.com wrote:

I just downloaded The voice for Android. In addition to a talking compass with lots of options, it had a cool mode that converts the camera input to a sonar type soundscape. This will be fun to experiment with!

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hbrobotics/f58976d8-3be7-4bee-8fbb-e1f2819ab214n%40googlegroups.com.

[Brian Higgins]

Which talking compass are you trying 

Brian Higgins

VA Researcher for blind mobility “Laser enhanced Echolocation” ClearPath Navigation 

Sent from my iPhone

On Apr 20, 2025, at 11:41 PM, Gmail <thomas...@gmail.com> wrote:

I wonder if ChatGPT would be up to the task. 💡! 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hbrobotics/49EFF7F5-7884-41E2-82FE-240FE8064A5B%40gmail.com.