Austrian company Tec-Innovation and Graz University of Technology have developed *InnoMake*, innovative shoes designed to help visually impaired individuals avoid obstacles. Equipped with ultrasonic sensors, these $3,000+ shoes detect objects up to 13 feet away, alerting wearers through vibrations and sounds—similar to car parking sensors.
Markus Raffer, a visually impaired co-founder of Tec-Innovation, praised the shoes: “This works very well and is already a great help to me.” Sensors can differentiate between obstacles like walls, cars, and stairs, offering tailored alerts.
Future upgrades aim to integrate cameras and machine learning, potentially enabling “street view navigation” for enhanced assistance. InnoMake represents a groundbreaking step toward empowering visually impaired individuals with greater independence and safety.
