Published: 24th April 2009 | Author: PA News
A student who invented a sat-nav system for guide dog users has said he hopes his design will have a "radical impact" on people's lives.
Jason Perkins, 34, said Peepo - which steers the user with vibrations on their fingertips - could give blind people the confidence to visit new places.
The product design student, from the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff, has been shortlisted for a prestigious Sir James Dyson award and hopes to take his invention to America.
Mr Perkins said: "I was trying to discover a real need for a design that would help people cope with a life barrier, and independence is one of the best things you can give to someone.
"It was designed off the back of a lot of research at the Cardiff Institute for the Blind and it has taken about 12 months to develop my work with my focus group.
"I just find it really rewarding and it feels really good to have done something that will have a radical impact on someone's life."
He said he came up with the idea after learning that nine in ten guide dog owners were unwilling to travel alone to places they and their dog hadn't been before.
Visually impaired users can speak a location into the Peepo, which fits in the palm of their hand, and it uses sat-nav technology to find directions.
They can clip it onto their guide dog's metal lead, and vibrations on their fingertips give them directions: the index finger for right or the ring finger for left.
There is also a third sensor which pulses steadily to let the user know that they are going in the right direction.
