Wearable proximity sensing array for the visually impaired

Abstract

Eyewear having a light array and vibration sensors for indicating to a user the direction and distance of an object relative to the eyewear to help a user understand and avoid objects. To compensate for partial blindness, the front portion of the eyewear frame may include the light array, where one or more lights of the light array is illuminated to indicate a corresponding direction of a proximate object. The relative brightness of the one or more lights indicates how close the object is, where brighter light(s) indicates a close object. To compensate for more severe partial blindness or complete blindness, the eyewear has haptics, such as a plurality of vibration devices on the front portion of the eyewear, such as in the bridge, which selectively vibrate to indicate a direction of the object. The stronger the vibration, the closer the object.