Tag Blind Cane

Holman competition

Crossing the street with a LightupCane

Crossing the street with a LightupCane

Hello dear supporters,

I tried to make a video with a mild cold to participate in the Holman competition. The Holman Foundation is based in the United States, and they promote that blind and partially sighted people do interesting things. Well, I am of course still busy with the Marchena LightupCane.

Something didn’t go quite right, so that movie is (unfortunately) called “mijn film”, my movie. Yes, it will eventually be, well, just watch it.

Do you want to vote for my video?
How? Like the video

Sincerely,

Debby

Please, could you share this message?

Presentation LightupCane at Symposium

Presentatie Lightupcane op Symposium

Presentatie Lightupcane op Symposium

Two teams of students gave a joint presentation about the DIY version of the Lightupcane. They have made it suitable for the blind. When the light comes on, or goes out, the blind user receives a vibrating and sound signal. If the cane falls it will beep until it is picked up. If it needs to be charged, we will receive a signal.
Super handy!

The intention is that second-year students of electrical engineering make the electronics smaller, so that the electronics should fit into any handle.

Announcement Symposium

Students at work

Students at work

At the Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences 2 teams of students have made the DIY version of the Lightupcane user-friendly, and they have been selected to give a presentation at a symposium. There is a competition element in it. I am curious how high they will finish 🙂

Symposium: ‘Healthcare technology: not lulle maar bouwe’

January 22, 2020 Time: 13:00 – 17:00 Location:

Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, Rochussenstraat 198,

Local RS.00.311 (ground floor)

Everyone is welcome!l

https://www.hogeschoolrotterdam.nl/hogeschool/agenda/kc-zorginnovatie/symposium-nlmb/

Make Health Open Evening at Waag

Geniuses at work

Geniuses at work

Coding

Coding

Prototyping

Prototyping anti-roll away

The first Make Health Open Evening took place on November 14 in the Waag Amsterdam. More than 10 technicians accepted the challenge of improving the Marchena Lightupcane in one evening. Surprising ideas came out. On the Photos you can see a small impression of a successful evening.

VR 360* “Lightupcanes make me visible “

Aankondiging VR filmpje

Lightup Canes Make me visible

June 20 the VR videos of Heroes & Friends Amsterdam were shown for the firsttime. The same goes for Debby’s VR video of the Marchena Lightupcane.

Making of: Debby’s Heroes and Friends Amsterdam VR Movie

Aankondiging VR filmpje

The collaboration between Debby and the Heroes & Friends of Amsterdam has resulted in a Virtual Reality (VR) movie about Debby’s experience as a VIP.

Click on the image below to view the “Behind the scenes” teaser.

The video will premiere in the Evening Programme on the 20th of June 2019 at the “Entrepeneurial Solutions for a Sustainable City Event“.

The event is hosted at the Impact Hub of the Heroes and Friends of Amsterdam, the evening programme starts at 19:00 hrs.

Address

Impact Hub

Linnaeusstraat 2c

1092 CK Amsterdam

 

Make Health III

Thursday 18 April there was an exhibition of Make Health III in Contact 020.

Contact Amsterdam is a maker space aimed to support and promote sustainable projects.

Verschillende lichtgevende witte stokken

 

Presentation stand of the Marchena Light-up Cane

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Impressie presentatie lichtgevende witte stokken

 

 

Debby is standing in front of the various light-emitting Blind Canes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Impression of the ZieZo event

Debby had a lot of fun presenting the Lightupcane to the VIPs’ present and other interested parties, here are some impressions.


  

The visitors and the colleagues at the event stand have subjected the Lightupcane to close inspection and “Road Tests” for two days during the event.

 

People were positively impressed.

Lightupcane presentation on the open day at the Royal Visio

Debby’s Lightupcane was invited by Fred Boot, Employee Advice and Information, to present the luminous cane at Visio Heerhugowaard at the Open Visio Day. This was of course an invitation that we could not turn down.

The public found Debby’s invention “a real solution” for visibility of VIPs in the dark and in bad weather.

The table was well attended and we also received good feedback from VIPs and other visitors.

Most VIPs found the handle of the Lightupcane Blind Cane pretty slim, although some people found the edge where the plastic of the handle flows into the flashlight somewhat annoying. Certainly if you have to commute for a long time, it may rub the skin too much. With the new handle design, the cylinder has been extended to address this problem.

In general, the handle of the “Simple signalling Cane” was experienced as being extremely pleasant in the hand, although for some the handle seemed a bit large.

The signalling cane is just one meter long and equipped with a touch point. A lady who is not that tall wanted a Signalling cane like that, but with the “Gripper point” so she could connect her roller onto the Cane. What a great idea! We would not have come up so quickly ourselves. So you see again, the user ultimately decides how they want to use their Blind Cane themselves.

As a thank you for the invitation and for introducing as many VIPs as possible to the Lightupcane, we have donated a Lightupcane Blind Cane and also a signalling Cane.

We wish the entire Visio Team tons of fun with the Lightupcane. Fred immediately started testing the Cane (see photo at the top).

There were a large number of people who visited Visio because, for various reasons, had lost sight or were losing sight. Visio has an enormous amount of knowledge and resources for this target group to prepare the VIP for the future. During the day, Visio colleagues held several workshops and demonstrated the possibilities that Visio can facilitate. There is a wealth of knowledge within the team that is made entirely available to VIPs. The team really goes for it, very cool to be able to experience this up close.

Visio also gives workshops to do something with Art. In addition to the luminous Blind Cane and the and the Visio activities, there was also the exhibition by Rachel Kuipers. Rachel is a VIP whose vision continues to decline.

You could not ignore the artworks of Rachel’s exhibition when you entered. She works with colored wax on heated paper (A2 size hot plate!) And makes amazingly beautiful art.

The photo on the left is an impression, you can see the beauty of the composition well and you can see the detail a bit.

In real life the artworks are spectacularly detailed and the colors just stand out. You really can’t imagine how someone with such low vision with just pieces of colored wax can paint with this precision on a piece of paper on a hot plate.

Ingenious.

It is exactly as Rachel says: “I don’t paint with my eyes, I paint with my heart and soul.”

The themes, the colors, the composition and the finesse of her work are ingenious and extremely artistic. This artist deserves respect and a wider stage!

You can admire Rachel’s work on her facebook page and also make an appointment to see and purchase her artwork. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can tell from the faces of Rachel and Robert Jan that it was a successful day! Chapeau for this beautiful couple and thanks for the Brownies (they were heavenly!)

Debby is featured on Eyes on Success Podcast

Debby was interviewed in the studios of the Amsterdam TV / Radio Station AT5 for the American internet platform “Eyes of Success”. Hosts Nancy and Peter Torpey had heard about het exploits and took great effort to do to a very professional interview with Debby indeed!. Here is the podcast. The purpose of the “Eyes on Success” internet platform is to discusses products, services and daily living tips for people with vision loss, all from their smartphone or PC. The “Eyes on Success” website excels in simplicity and accessibility. Nancy and Peter did a great interview and also gave Debby lots of tips and tricks to enhance her internet presence. Great people, fantastic interview. We have fantastic people in our VIP communicty, you just have to find them!

Makehealth Group Presentation

The Team presented their prototypes during a very well attended “Make Health” presentation. A total of 13 project teams proudly demonstrated their accomplishments.

The reason why private persons create solutions that people around them need differ, but they generally fall into three categories. The Solutions that exist are too expensive, they suck or simply do not exist yet. The team at “De Waag” help the team develop their Solution from Conceptual to Practical Prototype.

As did Debby’s Team. Her team had a bit of a head start on the other teams, because Debby had a clear vision of what the product would have to do. Her challenge was to get the right materials, only include the bare necessities and create a product that can stand the daily abuse of commuter travel and being slammed into objects all the time.

First the team prepared the presentation table and laid out the different prototypes the team created. Once this task was completed, we all joined the kick-off presentation in the Media room.

Paulien did a great presentation about the why and future the of Make Health platform careables.org. She also conducted a very interesting interview with the panel.

Then the audience went by each project demonstration. The pictures speak for themselves.