Many of the functions of missing limbs can be restored by parenthetic limbs, but there is a limitation for technology development in the field of overcoming blindness. Researchers are constantly trying to develop high-tech clothing which could help visually impaired people navigate.

Tactile Navigation Tools, a New-York based company, is developing a hands-free wearable device called Eyeronman. This device uses sensors to detect obstacles and accordingly signals wearer with vibrations. The device will not only benefit the blind, but also soldiers and firefighters and many others.

Dr. JR Rizzo, a rehabilitation doctor at NYU Langone Medical Center and the company's founder and chief medical adviser said, “When soldiers return from war, the ones with limb loss are getting expensive devices, but the ones with vision loss we're giving them a stick. It's a little ridiculous."

Now legally blind Rizzo was diagnosed with choroideremia, a rare retinal degenerative disease causing progressive vision loss, at the age of 15. In his opinion, blind people should have state-of-the-art sensory prosthetic devices.

Rizzo told Live Science, “I don't care what the vision loss is from. The goal is to increase mobility and get people integrated back into society.”

The Eyeronman system is built on the concept of navigation by vibration. It comprises of a vest with embedded sensors and emitters for LIDAR, ultrasound and infrared. Input from these sensors are converted into vibrations in the T-shirt made from electro-active polymers. The lower right part of the shirt will vibrate to alarm the wearer of the obstacle in the lower right. As per the developers, this system is designed to provide an obstacle detection of 360-degrees.

According to studies, parts of brain ordinarily used for vision process auditory input in the visually impaired people. It suggests brain is intrinsically plastic, continuously adapting and forming new neural connections. This plasticity of brain will help the eyeronman users to train themselves to use the device. Therefore, while walking past a table a blind person can feel it by vibration.

The system is pending a patent approval. It can also be used by soldiers in combat in low light areas or places with a lot of smoke from fires or explosions. Similar products have been created in the past, but none cautions the wearer of the obstacle as this invention, Rizzo asserts.

The current prototype has LEDs to display the sensor input in place of vibrations. As all the sensors will not work ideally in all environments, researchers are trying to come up with inexpensive sensors that work best with the environment.