EyeCan Capstone Project
Summary
The purpose of the project, EyeCan, is to support the independence of individuals in the Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) community by developing a system that helps aging individuals identify and safely navigate heat hazards in a kitchen environment.
This project was created by a team of 5 Mechatronics Engineering students from McMaster University. It was supervised and generously sponsored by Dr. Matthew Giamou, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computing and Software at McMaster University.
EyeCan consists of two subsystems: a primary camera hub that monitors the kitchen area, and a secondary wearable system with haptic feedback devices. The primary system uses a thermal camera to detect heat hazards and a standard camera paired with OpenCV to track the user's hand. When a heat hazard is detected within a defined proximity to the user's hand, the systems communicate using bluetooth low energy (BLE) to trigger haptic feedback on the wearable and alert the user. The vibration frequency increases as a user gets closer to the hazard.
Video
This video presents the development process of EyeCan, including our motivation, behind-the-scenes footage of testing and building, technical highlights, and a final demo of the system.
Slideshow
This presentation slideshow provides an alternate format that showcases the technical details of our project.