Researchers at Penn State are working on a smart glove that can help guide blind people at the grocery store. The device comes with integrated camera to recognize objects/products, and vibrating motors that point user toward the right direction.

Part of the endeavor called “Visual Cortex on Silicon,” which spans multiple fields of inquiry from materials design to brain circuitry and includes nearly 50 researchers at Penn State and seven other institutions, the smart glove — which is referred to as the Third Eye project — aims to interpret a complex visual scene much as the human brain does.

Big retailers could be buying buy one or two of these gloves for their visually-impaired customers to use.As part of the device development, the researchers were asking prospective users about their experience of shopping, and taking their answers seriously.

“We’re studying shopping with visually-impaired people: how they organize the task and how they think about it,” says Jack Carroll, Distinguished Professor of Information Sciences and Technology. “What’s difficult about it, what’s rewarding about it, what’s meaningful about it? Because what you don’t want to do in supporting an activity technologically is make it less rewarding, less meaningful, or more challenging.”

Carroll, his students, and the glove design team will soon launch a trial with visually-impaired volunteers to further refine the system. For instance, what’s the best way to guide shoppers looking for stacked items such as cans of soup? The shopper needs to pick up the can on top; if he grabs a can in the middle, the stack will come tumbling down.

Looking into the future, the team envisions big retailers buying buy one or two of these gloves for their visually-impaired customers to use, just as many stores now have motorized scooter-carts for their customers who have trouble walking. They could keep the devices updated with sale prices and locations of items; and when a shopper scans in a list of items to be bought that day, the system might even suggest an alternative if a different brand of a list item is available for less money. Is this a prospect of a brave new world, or what?