A student from Kuzbass has created a device for blind and visually impaired people

Denis Kruchinin is a pupil of the Kiselyov Center for Children's Scientific and Engineering Creativity, created with the support of the Andrey Melnichenko Foundation. The eighth grader claims that his invention will allow people with visual impairments to better navigate in space.

The "Helping hand" device, similar to a bracelet, emits a sound wave and catches its reflection from surrounding surfaces. After that, it emits a beep warning the owner about the obstacle.

The student presented his development at the Children's Scientific Competition of the Andrey Melnichenko Foundation. The competent jury highly appreciated both the idea and the device itself. Following the results of the final stage, Denis became the bronze medalist of DNA – 2021.

But the young engineer is not going to stop there. The plans are to improve the invention.

"All my adult life I have been striving to help people. A year ago, the idea came to invent a device for the visually impaired. It's ready now. It has a built-in GPS module for determining a person's location and a SIM card slot. If the wearer is motionless for a long time, the bracelet itself sends an SOS message to the specified number. It remains to develop a mobile application to expand the functionality and improve the appearance of the device, which is what I am doing now," says Denis Kruchinin.

The device has already been tested by potential users of the device - activists of the local community of blind and visually impaired people.

FOR REFERENCE. The Andrey Melnichenko Charitable Foundation is a private foundation for infrastructural educational projects in the field of natural sciences. In 2017-2018, 8 centers of children's scientific and engineering creativity were opened in Barnaul, Biysk, Kemerovo, Leninsk-Kuznetsk, Nevinnomyssk, Novomoskovsk and Rubtsovsk within the framework of the Foundation's key "Program of Support for Gifted Schoolchildren in the regions where EUROCHEM, SUEK and SGK companies operate" in Barnaul, Biysk, Kemerovo, Leninsk-Kuznetsk, Nevinnomyssk, Novomoskovsk and Rubtsovsk. In them, more than 2,600 schoolchildren of grades 5-11 study the disciplines of the natural science cycle in depth.

More information about the Foundation's activities: http://aimfond.ru