A REVOLUTIONARY smart cane could soon help blind people identify familiar faces — even if their friends and relatives are in a crowded place.

    Using a facial recognition camera and built-in sensors, the Xplor mobility stick scans for pre-programmed faces and will vibrate when it locates one.

    Audio directions are then played through a connected Bluetooth earpiece to help the blind user find the recognized person.

    The cane was developed by ICT students Steve Adigbo, Waheed Rafiq and Richard Howlett from Birmingham City University.

    It uses smartphone technology to recognize familiar faces from up to 32 feet (10 meters) away, and features GPS functionality to aid navigation.

    It uses a bank of images stored on a built-in SD card to identify which faces are familiar and should be searched for.

    If the camera scans a room and finds a match with one of these images, the cane will vibrate to alert the user.

    Step-by-step audio instructions are then played through an earpiece, which connects to the cane via Bluetooth, to help the blind person navigate to their friend.

    Adigbo said, “My grandfather is blind and I know how useful this device could be for him.

    “The smart cane incorporates facial recognition technology to alert the user when they are approaching a relative or friend. “There’s nothing else out there like this at the moment.”

    The Birmingham City University team recently presented the XploR cane to medical and science professionals in Luxembourg and France, and plan to visit organizations in Germany later this year.(SD-Agencies)