Ali Younessi

• Haptic vision
• BEng (Hons) Electrical and Electronic Engineering

According to the WHO and SEVA (tinyurl.com/ohzsls9), there are more than 800,000 individuals who suffer from blindness in Egypt. The effect on their families, society and economy is large. Modern ophthalmic drugs and retinal prosthetics are very expensive.  Most will therefore continue with substituting the sense of touch – using braille and the stick. The British council have therefore funded a £200k project to explore the use of next generation of tablets with 2D 'tactile' force feedback. We have teamed up with Tanvas, a key start up in this field which is providing devices and are exploring, through clinical trials, how they could be used.

This research will involve developing concept user interfaces for blind people to use haptic tablets. This will involve developing Java programming skills as well as user interface architectures. I will have to liaise with the clinical teams involved in the UK and Egypt.

Funding source: Newcastle University

Supervisor: Dr Patrick Degenaar