When on the national holiday, you might see an exciting show of fireworks. The loud explosive sound of fireworks is a stimulus. The colorful explosions can be a wonderful visual experience for you. Disney Research brings a new tech for visually impaired people when they want to “feel” fireworks.
Photo Credit: Hans https://pixabay.com/en/rocket-red-orange-fireworks-461750/
Disney Research has been working on the project “feeling fireworks”. They use a flexible display that offers haptic feedback. The feedback is generated by different methods of vibration corresoponding to fireworks. The technology can aid the blind or people with low vision to feel fireworks if they put hands on the screen surface. the screen is a 3ft*3ft latex screen and combined with a projector and a series of water jets device. In order to feel fireworks, the projector is installed in the front and water jets device is in the back. Then, an Arduino application performs pressure and the shape of fireworks on the screen by controlling the spray of water jets. Users on the other side can directly touch the flexible screen to feel fireworks. The front projector can show a corresponding image and matching effects.
Photo Credit: Disney Research
Microsoft Kinect camera is also used in the protoype. It is used to track the dynamic movments of the user, which can provide more interactive effects for people to feel "more real fireworks". However, there are no any plant to install the device in any Disney parks now. But it truly has opend a gate for the blind or visually impared people to know more about fireworks.
Youtube Video by Disney Research: https://youtu.be/19WMStqdXmM
New Reference: https://www.popsci.com/disney-feeling-fireworks-display