Sonic aid for blind being exported

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33606, 7 August 1974, Page 14

Sonic aid for blind being exported

A New Zealand-developed sonic aid which enables blind people to sense objects in their path is now being exported to Australia and the United States, and will also be exported to Britain.

The “sonic spectacles,” which throw a beam of highfrequency sound in the path of the wearer and analyse the reflections on two special microphones, have been under development in Christchurch for about three years. The first production models of the aid were manufactured by Wormaid Vigilant in

Christchurch several weeks •ago, and the first export shipments will leave soon. More than 40 Australian blind people and more than 100 elsewhere in the world have been using the device as a trial for some time, and the field tests in Australia and United States have determined that these countries i will be the first to receive export orders, since there are sufficient qualified instructors there. A course in the use of the aid for instructors who teach the blind to master their environment was held in Melbourne recently, and two more will be held in the United States next month — one at Boston College and the other at Western Michigan University, both leading universities in the rehabilitation of the blind. Judges arrested The Ethiopian armed forces say that they have arrested nine judges and a former Government official, bringing to 118 the number of persons detained since last April. The armed forces, which now effectively control the country, have also published the names of 23 other wanted men, including 20 judges, a police general and a palace official. — Addis Ababa, August 6.