Glasgow student scoops engineering design prize
A
Royal Academy of Engineering product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Aug 5, 2005
A student from Glasgow took home first prize in The Royal Academy of Engineering's recent poster competition in principles of engineering design.
A student from Product Design Engineering, a course run jointly between Glasgow School of Art and the University of Glasgow, took home first prize in The Royal Academy of Engineering's recent poster competition in principles of engineering design.
Allan Sinclair, a graduating 5th year MEng student, created a virtual tennis game which enables the visually impaired to compete with sighted players.
Incorporating an auditory representation of real tennis with accurate feedback of shot quality and accelerometers to detect motion, the tennis sensation pro gives all the aural and tactile feedback of real tennis and allows blind users the opportunity to play competitively against sighted players.
With the Department of Computer Science, gesture recognition software was developed that allows the system to distinguish the players shot types (eg high forehand).
This uses the principle that all tennis strokes (or indeed any actions) have individual signature acceleration profiles which distinguishing them from each other.
Although the working prototype currently makes use of conventional stereo sound to describe the ball's position, the product was ultimately designed around a new development in sound processing called spatial audio.
This provides the user with three-dimensional audio feedback and a more captivating experience.
To gain accurate shot feedback a real tennis racquet was instrumented with load cells and accelerometers and the vibration response analysed.
A mechanical system was then developed to replicate the feel of different shot types, making the experience to feel like real tennis.
The project was initiated by two blind journalists who had the ambition to play real tennis.
They were involved throughout the early design phase and had input into the overall concept and direction of the project.
The product is currently in the prototype stage with valuable feedback being gained from a visit to a local visually impaired school.
Sinclair is now looking for interested parties to take the project on further.
The competition involved 22 universities which are currently part of The Royal Academy of Engineering's Visiting Professors in Engineering Design for Sustainable Development or Visiting Professors in Principles of Engineering Design schemes.
David Foxley of The Royal Academy of Engineering and organiser of the competition says: "Allan's design is a remarkable achievement that has recognised a real need and has developed not only the concept of a tennis game for the visually impaired, but has also produced a working prototype that is ready for commercial development".
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