Brilliant Cane, Health Technology that Facilitates the Mobility of People with Disabilities

When talking about sticks, Dian Syarief still remembers the memorable experience when he was separated from a companion for people with disabilities at Kualanamu Airport, Deli Serdang Regency, North Sumatra, several years ago.

People with lupus and low vision, like Dian, find it difficult to answer questions that are impossible to answer.

“I myself have low vision. At that time, I was separated from my caregiver even though at that time I was about to leave. There I felt it was really difficult to explain when asked ‘where are you,'” said Dian, Thursday (11/11/2021).

Dian or anyone with low vision would feel irritated. Unable to be found, Dian was forced to leave by other passengers.

However, it was also this bitter experience that made the woman born in Bandung, December 21, 1965, gave birth to the idea to encourage change for people with low visio and blind people. He wants the blind to be equipped with a device that can track their whereabouts when they are lost.

“The principle must be reversed, not the blind person who has to explain where he is. Instead, he must be tracked where he is so that he can be found,” said the winner of the 2012 Sasakawa Health Prize from the World Health Organization (WHO).

Expected to Increase Public Awareness

Dian said, the idea was expected to increase public awareness of lupus and low vision. “The solution is to contact the caregiver through the emergency button then he can be found and if he is disoriented,” he said.

While establishing an organization to help fellow lupus and low vision sufferers called the Syamsi Dhuha Foundation (SDF), Dian started her dream to create a modern cane for the visually impaired (DN) which has many advantages over ordinary canes.

The institution founded by Dian held a DN tool design competition which was held in the context of World Sight Day (WSD) in 2017. The winner of the race at that time initiated the iStick, a stick to detect obstacles equipped with a camera.

Istick, which was designed by three alumni of the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB), namely Electrical Product Design & Petroleum, has just been equipped with sensors to detect obstructions, heat, and standing water. There is no emergency button as expected Dian.

The competition which was initiated by Dian and his friends was not only aimed at showing off the sophistication of technology. However, judging from whether the tools produced from this innovation are the needs of the wider community or only for certain circles.

“Initially, we once held a design competition for assistive devices for people with visual impairments. At that time there were several winners, which we finally decided to develop first because we thought they were what we needed,” he said.

Keep Perfecting Bricane

For the past three years, Dian and the team have been passionate about perfecting the DN stick that was initiated from the competition. The SDF development team, HardtmannMekatroniske, consists of a group of young ITB alumni developing medical devices.

Not only that, but the development was also supported by a team of volunteers from the Product Design & Biomedical Study Program ITB. They conducted a series of trials of various types of sticks and devices.

In addition, they tried several changes taking into account the test results and input from DN users. Up to the present stage, the walking stick made by SDF is called Brilliant Cane or now abbreviated as Bricane.

“This Bricane has gone through several phases since it was initiated. Finally, when we want to produce, we collaborate with Hardtmann Mekatroniske to develop this assistive device for the visually impaired,” said Dian.

SDF Manager Laila Panchasari said, when DN was disoriented or lost, the Bricane application was equipped with a video recording and sending feature to help DN provide information on the situation around him.

The video recording will automatically be sent to the DN companion whose data has been stored in the application. “DN can also choose the sensor response he wants, it can only vibrate, only sound or both,” said Laila.