ABC News visits Youth Slam camp, takes BDC vehicles for a demo drive

The National Federation of the Blind hosted its STEM-inspired Youth Slam camp last week in Baltimore. The camp's mission, according to a NFB website: "Engage and inspire the next generation of blind youth to consider careers falsely believed to be impossible for the blind and bring a unified voice to the next generation of blind professionals."

ABC News stopped by the morning of July 22 for a demo of the Blind Driver Challenge vehicles. Later, students at the camp had the chance to ride in the cars, driven by the NFB's Mark Riccobono and Anil Lewis.

In the image above, Virginia Tech Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (RoMeLa) Director Dennis Hong and ABC News' Juju Chang wave their hellos from one of the BDC vehicles. Chang, wearing sleeper shades, took the wheel of the Blind Driver Challenge vehicle as part of a show focusing on Hong's work that will air in September.

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All photos by Steven D. A. Mackay.

Wired's Autopia Blog: 'Ford Proves That Blind Drivers Can Learn A Stick Shift'

Administrator's Note: This report by "Wired" magazine talks about a separate project to help the blind drive, but mentions in detail the Blind Driver Challenge...

Ford of Europe let 30 blind and visually impaired drivers get behind the wheel at their test track in Cologne, Germany in an attempt to give blind people a better understanding of automobiles and examine how they interact with cars.

Last week’s test drives put drivers in control of all vehicle inputs, responding to the directions of a sighted driving instructor. The fastest driver got their Fiesta up to 74 mph, and Ford reported that all drivers quickly mastered the fine art of a stick shift through feel and sound.

“Driving it was not a big problem for me,” said driver Katrin Berus of Kleve, Germany. “Operating clutch and gearshift was easier than I expected.”

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CNN presents TED Talk reports: 'Why we made a car for blind drivers'

Text by Dennis Hong, director of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech.

Blacksburg, Virginia (CNN) -- In our modern society, driving is really a necessity. It is a means of getting you to your destination wherever, whenever. Driving is also fun. Some people even consider it an expression of power. Most importantly, driving is really about freedom, about independence.

Sighted people, myself included, do it every day and take it for granted. Unfortunately, because of physical challenges, not everyone has the privilege to drive. My team of researchers wants to find a way to give the blind the ability to drive.

When we first announced that we were going to take up this challenge, many thought we were crazy, and most of the critics doubted that it could be done. Even some of my colleagues challenged us on the idea of developing a vehicle for the blind.

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Image courtesy TED Talk

NFB congratulates Blind Driver Experience participants

[Administrator's note: From a press release by the National Federation of the Blind.]

Baltimore, Maryland (June 24, 2011): The National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the oldest and largest nationwide organization of blind people, today congratulated the thirty people who won the honor of participating in the Blind Driver Experience. On Tuesday, July 5, from 1–6:00 p.m., as part of the NFB National Convention in Orlando, the winners will get the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ride in the Blind Driver Challenge™ car equipped with nonvisual technology (the same car that was driven on the famed Daytona International Speedway on January 29, 2011).

The participants of the Blind Driver Experience will be driven in the official Blind Driver Challenge vehicle by Mark Riccobono, executive director of the NFB Jernigan Institute, and the first blind person to drive a street vehicle in public.

The Blind Driver Experience is an initiative of the NFB Imagination Fund, which supports the education, technology, and research projects of the NFB Jernigan Institute, as well as programs conducted by the fifty-two affiliates and over seven-hundred local chapters of the Federation.

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Photo by John McCormick, Virginia Tech

From TED2011: Dennis Hong: Making a car for blind drivers

From the international TED2011 event: Using robotics, laser rangefinders, GPS and smart feedback tools, Dennis Hong is building a car for drivers who are blind. It's not a "self-driving" car, he's careful to note, but a car in which a non-sighted driver can determine speed, proximity and route -- and drive independently.

Hong, an associate professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at Virginia Tech spoke about the Blind Driver Challenge project and its Daytona Rolex24 debut at the TED2011 event, held in early March in Long Beach, Calif. Among his fellow speakers: Bill Gates, Bill Ford and Roger Ebert. Watch the video.

Image of Dennis Hong on the TED stage is courtesy of TED2011.

From 'Popular Science': How a Blind Man Drove the Daytona Speedway

By Juliet Lapidos

Mark Anthony Riccobono, who is blind, drove a modified Ford Escape hybrid on the Daytona International Speedway, turning to avoid obstacles. He navigated using feedback from the car’s laser sensors and cameras, installed by a team of researchers from Virginia Tech and the company Torc Technologies. PopSci spoke by phone to Riccobono, the executive director of the National Federation of the Blind’s Jernigan Institute, which researches new technology for the blind.

How did you know when to turn?

The car’s laser range-finding sensors sent data to a computer, which in turn sent me directional information. I was wearing gloves with motors in the knuckle....

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Image of Mark Riccobono by Steven D. A. Mackay.

Blind Driver Challenge: Technology that Puts Blind People in the Driver's Seat

From "Access World"

By Deborah Kendrick

Five years ago, when I first heard Dr. Betsy Zaborowski, then executive director for the Jernigan Institute at the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), speak about a car that blind people could drive, I remember thinking, Yes, that could be possible. At the time, I knew about cars with motion detectors that could sense the proximity of another vehicle, and I'd read about cars that were programmed to stay in the proper lane. I, like many others, assumed Dr. Zaborowski was talking about a programmable car—a car that could automatically take a blind person to a programmed address or set of coordinates, similar to the way GPS works.

That's also what Dr. Dennis Hong, professor of mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech, first thought when he was approached by the NFB to collaborate on a project that would enable a blind person to drive a car. After all, students at Virginia Tech had already developed an autonomous vehicle that could drive without a human. Dr. Hong soon learned, however, that an autonomous car was not at all what those at the NFB imagined. They wanted a car that would literally put a blind person in the driver's seat, detecting obstacles, determining turns, and making decisions.

"What can't you do?" is a question that most blind people hear from sighted friends and colleagues at one time or another. For me, the answer used to come easily: "I can't read print and I can't drive."

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Image of Mark Riccobono at the wheel of the Blind Driver Challenge vehicle by Steven D. A. Mackay.