Girl, 9, invents cane with sensors to help blind people

A nine-year-old girl has invented a cane with ultrasonic sensors to help blind people.

Mihika Sharma, from Lewisham, decided she wanted to help visually impaired people after an “upsetting” experience in 2016 when a blind woman stumbled in front of her.

The schoolgirl and her mother Manisha, 43, had been helping the elderly woman across the street in Greenwich 2016 when she tripped.

She has now been shortlisted for BT’s young pioneer award which recognises children using tech to make the world a better place.

Mrs Sharma, a dentist, said: “An elderly lady was crossing the road and she nearly fell over a step. This upset Mihika and she said ‘I will make a stick so the blind can cross safely’. She got some paper and made her initial design.”

That year her mother entered the design into a competition called the Primary Engineer Leaders’ Award.

Mihika won the award which enabled her to create the first Smart Stick prototype with students at UCL.

Due to lack of funding it does not have all the features that she designed, so her family are crowdfunding to turn the idea into a functioning product.

The design has built-in ultrasonic sensors to detect obstacles, a water sensor to detect puddles, Bluetooth connection which provides audio warnings and motors to help direct the user. It even has a remote to help locate the stick if the owner loses it.

While there are similar products in the market, competition bosses say the Smart Stick has “unique features” such as right and left vibrating alerts, LED lights and a camera with artificial intelligence.

One visually impaired person said: “The biggest feature I love about the stick is the fact it can detect puddles. That’s a revelation.”

The Young Pioneer Award will be held tomorrow at the BT’s HQ in St Paul’s.