AI for Social Innovation Award

Aditya Chandra and Varish Gahlot building an AI-powered smart cane that uses haptic feedback to help people with visual impairments sense obstacles.

The AI-powered smart cane

Aditya Chandra and Varish Gahlot are developing a patent-pending navigation system for people with visual impairments. It currently takes the form of an AI-powered smart cane, but the technology could eventually be adapted for smart glasses, a wristband, or a glove, reducing reliance on a conventional white cane.

Sensors gather information about the user’s surroundings and AI interprets the data. The system relays guidance through vibration patterns in the cane. A long vibration may warn of an obstacle while different patterns of short pulses can indicate a turn to the left or right. The project began at a school for students with visual impairments. They encountered that some children with visual impairment also had reduced sensitivity to touch. The team tested successive prototypes with volunteers and refined the system after each round.

“Technology is at its best when it takes a barrier away from someone. Aditya and Varish pulled a technical team together and stayed with this through a lot of rework. What they’ve set out to build is a hardware solution people can actually use, and it sets a high bar for social-impact AI. 3AI will also connect Aditya and Varish with mentors from its network of AI leaders and researchers.”
Sameer Dhanarajani, CEO, 3AI

Aditya Chandra
Co-creator, assistive smart cane
Off the cane project, Aditya captains his school basketball team. He also co-authored SMART-Eq, an IEEE conference paper on analyzing equity markets with large language models.

Varish Gahlot
Co-creator, assistive smart cane
Off the cane project, Varish is a published author of a book on AI.