Talking regatta stopwatch
Type of project: Feasibility study
Disability concerned: Visual disability
Topics: Participation in cultural life, sports and leisure activities
Status: Completed
The idea is to develop a regatta watch that is accessible to visually impaired sailors while retaining the same functionalities as ‘classic’ regatta watches. This study will compare 2 solutions in order to define the specifications of the future watch.
During a regatta (a race between sailboats), getting off to a good start is essential: that is, crossing the start line at the exact end of the countdown. Sailing is a sport that is particularly well-suited to the visually impaired (lots of sensations), but at the start of a regatta, blind or partially-sighted sailors are not able to have the time counted down before the start. The use of a mobile phone application is unsuitable and prohibited in certain regattas. Existing watches used by sighted sailors are not accessible.
Some watches provide audible feedback (beeps every minute and seconds for the last 10 seconds) or haptic feedback (vibration). However, the remaining time cannot be displayed on demand.
The aim of this study is to establish the technical and functional specifications for a future prototype by developing and comparing 2 solutions, the 1st being a solution on an apple watch and the 2nd based on an existing development kit offering a watch interface.
As a result of this study, 2 solutions were developed:
- An application running on an Apple Watch
- A watch solution using the M5 Stack development module.
A comparative study of the 2 solutions was carried out. The 2 solutions were tested by various visually impaired and blind sailors during training sessions and regattas.
Feedback from users was used to draw up the technical and functional specifications for a future prototype.
This project has shown how important it is to have the end users of the watch in the team. It saves time. It was easier for us to get answers to questions and draw up the specifications. The diversity of the team members was also very enriching and led to a lot of very constructive discussions. It was a very rewarding experience for us, both professionally and personally. For some of us, it was a chance to discover the process of creating and developing a product: how to take an idea and turn it into an initial prototype, while for others, it was a chance to discover in more detail the specific features to be taken into account in relation to visual impairment.
