Engineering, the build path
Three phases, one rule.
A weekend demo that proves the idea, an MVP a blind or visually impaired person can test, and a product-ready kit proven through the tests. Across all three, the belt reflex owns warnings and never depends on the phone or the glasses. Costs and times here are working figures, not promises, and get re-checked at order.
PHASE 1, the demo
Feel the concept in a weekend
What it proves
Distance becomes a placed, graded buzz. A hand moves toward the sensor and the right motor answers, stronger as it closes. That is the whole thesis, small enough to hold.
What is in it
- A three-point chest station, or a single sensor-to-motor loop
- One VL53L8CX laser grid
- A few VG0832022D 8 mm coin LRAs
- A DRV2605L driver per motor, behind one TCA9548A multiplexer
- An RP2350 running the loop, a small LiPo powering it
- Parts cost
- published once testing ends
- Time
- a weekend
- Deferred
- Multi-sensor fusion, the glasses, and any enclosure.
PHASE 2, the MVP
A full wearable a blind or visually impaired person can test
What it proves
The reflex loop works end to end on a walking body: twenty motors, four sensor families fused, real orientation and mobility testing with blind and visually impaired people.
What is in it
- The twenty-motor belt, collar, and ankle bands
- All four sensors fused on the RP2350: laser grids, radar, sonar, IMU
- The ESP32 spine and the companion app
- A fabric-and-silicone build a person can wear for hours
- Orientation and mobility testing against the evaluation milestones
- Parts cost
- published once testing ends
- Time
- a few weeks
- Deferred
- The glasses scene layer and product-grade durability.
PHASE 3, product-READY
Refined, skin-safe, durable, manufacturable
What it proves
The full safety architecture holds through the tests. Only after milestones G0 to G4 pass is the kit something a stranger can order, wear, and trust.
What is in it
- The smart-glasses scene layer, roadmap, on the roadmap: OpenGlass first, Frame to demo, Halo when it ships
- A waist pouch, Raspberry Pi 5 plus AI HAT if needed, for wearers without a qualifying phone
- Skin-safe silicone and BioMed resin housings
- Manufacturable bands, pods, and cabling
- The full safety architecture proven through milestones G0 to G4
- Parts cost
- open, set in the tests
- Time
- after the MVP passes the tests
- Deferred
- Nothing that touches safety.
The standing rule
The belt reflex owns warnings, in every phase.
Phase 1's single loop, phase 2's full wearable, and phase 3's finished kit all keep the same wall: warnings come from the wired reflex path, and the phone and the glasses can only describe. Costs above are indicative and get re-checked at order; the working budget lives in the record.