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. 2017 Feb 14;17(2):364.
doi: 10.3390/s17020364.

An Electromagnetic Sensor for the Autonomous Running of Visually Impaired and Blind Athletes (Part I: The Fixed Infrastructure)

Marco Pieralisi  1 , Valentina Di Mattia  2 , Valerio Petrini  3 , Alfredo De Leo  4 , Giovanni Manfredi  5 , Paola Russo  6 , Lorenzo Scalise  7 , Graziano Cerri  8
Affiliations

An Electromagnetic Sensor for the Autonomous Running of Visually Impaired and Blind Athletes (Part I: The Fixed Infrastructure)

Marco Pieralisi et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Sport is one of the best ways to promote the social integration of people affected by physical disability, because it helps them to increase their self-esteem by facing difficulties and overcoming their disabilities. Nowadays, a large number of sports can be easily played by visually impaired and blind athletes without any special supports, but, there are some disciplines that require the presence of a sighted guide. In this work, the attention will be focused on marathons, during which athletes with visual disorders have to be linked to the sighted guide by means of a non-stretchable elbow tether, with an evident reduction of their performance and autonomy. In this context, this paper presents a fixed electromagnetic infrastructure to equip a standard running racetrack in order to help a blind athlete to safely run without the presence of a sighted guide. The athlete runs inside an invisible hallway, just wearing a light and a comfortable sensor unit. The patented system has been homemade, designed, realized and finally tested by a blind Paralympic marathon champion with encouraging results and interesting suggestions for technical improvements. In this paper (Part I), the transmitting unit, whose main task is to generate the two magnetic fields that delimit the safe hallway, is presented and discussed.

Keywords: electromagnetic safety; electromagnetic travel aids; visually impaired athletes.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Example of system fixed infrastructure positioning in a stadium. Two concentric loops have the size of a standard athletic lane. Each loop is fed with different currents to identify the left and right side.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Top: Athlete between two wires emitting the electromagnetic signal, transverse section. Bottom: schematic representation of the geometrical parameters relative to the interaction between the magnetic field from a cable and the magnetic loop worn by the athlete.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Top: theoretical evaluation of the induced electromotive force e.m.f., according to (Equation (1)). The blue and red lines refer to the external and internal wire respectively. Bottom: difference of the received signals.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Schematic representation of the signal generation unit, where MCU and LCL respectively indicate the microcontroller unit and the inductances/capacitor matching network.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Current signals generated for the two wires.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Matching network used to provide the load with higher power.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Modified square wave used to drive the H-Bridge.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Scalise L., Primiani V.M., Russo P., Shahu D., Di Mattia V., De Leo A., Cerri G. Experimental investigation of electromagnetic obstacle detection for visually impaired users: A comparison with ultrasonic sensing. IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas. 2012;61:3047–3057. doi: 10.1109/TIM.2012.2202169. - DOI

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