WeWALK Impressions Manuel utilisateur

Impressions

WeWalk Smart Cane

 
© 2021 Malta Society of the Blind 2 
Contents 
Introduction.......................................................................................................3 
What's in the Box...............................................................................................4 
Assembling the Cane..........................................................................................5 
First Feel ............................................................................................................6 
The Handle.........................................................................................................7 
Top.................................................................................................................7 
Back Side........................................................................................................8 
Front Side.......................................................................................................8 
The App .............................................................................................................9 
Touchpad and Gestures .....................................................................................9 
Sound and Sounds .............................................................................................9 
Navigation Options ..........................................................................................10 
Explore.............................................................................................................10 
GPS and Location.............................................................................................10 
Transport.........................................................................................................11 
Obstacle Detection ..........................................................................................11 
Conclusion .......................................................................................................13 
Things I Would Like to See Improved ...............................................................13 
 
 

Introduction

Thanks to FITA (Foundation for Information Technology) I had the opportunity

to try the WeWalk Smart Cane with obstacle detection for a few days in my

environment. I was excited to learn more about this new cane in a hands-on

way.

I think I should mention that I am legally blind, but I would still consider myself

partially sighted with some remaining peripheral vision.

In this document, I will give you my thoughts and impressions about this new

device.

What's in the Box

Upon opening, I first found the User Manual as a normally printed booklet and

two sheets with instructions a quick guide printed and embossed in braille.

Underneath the documentation, the box contains the WeWalk handle that

holds the entire technology, a foldable white cane to assemble with the

handle, an adapter to use the WeWalk handle with your own cane, a USB

charging cable, and a faux leather sleeve for the handle.

Assembling the Cane

I was fighting a little bit with the assembly, because the ends of the

elastic strip somehow made it difficult to thread the cane into the

handle.

After some attempts, I managed to attach the handle tight onto the cane part.

Attaching the handle to my own cane is something I did not try, because then

you need to remove (literally cut off) your cane's original handle and make

sure you do not lose the elastic strap because you will have to pull it through

the adapter that needs to be attached to the cane. The diameter of the cane

also would have to be taken into consideration for using the adapter.

First Feel

The handle feels solid, and the roller tip is swiveling freely. The cane part feels

sturdy.

With about 250 g, the WeWalk handle is rather heavy.

Thanks to its cylindric shape, the handle rest well in the palm of my hand. It

will fit for smaller and bigger hands.

When lifting the assembled cane, it is much heavier than my normal long white

cane. Maybe for the heavy handle I had the impression as if the cane

altogether was not as sturdy as my own one.

If the WeWalk was my cane, I would have changed the elastic wrist strap,

which is rather lose and not well designed in length and strength to keep the

folded cane together.

Talking about folding the cane: My first attempt to fold the

cane left me with the handle and the first segment stuck

together.

I had to pull hard on the first segment to get it out for

folding.

The Handle

Top

The user manual warns you that in case of heavy or

prolonged rain you should switch the handle off and

protect it immediately to avoid malfunction and/or

damage. The handle cover is supposed to be waterproof,

but I did not test it.

The USB port is not covered and/or

designed in a way that it would be

protected against water and/or dust.

Back Side

The backside of the handle holds the power

ON/OFF button and the speaker/microphone for

voice communication. Further down is some braille

text, but I do not know what it says because I don't

read braille.

These elements again seem not water and/or dust

protected. Neither do the screws holding the parts

of the handle together.

When you hold the cane while walking, the power

button is far away enough from your fingers so you

would not accidentally touch it.

Front Side

On the front of the handle there are two switch-like

buttons where you should place your thumb to get

a better haptic feedback when the cane is vibrating.

Below this is a touchpad for navigating though the

app and other functions built-in in the handle itself.

Then there is the main feature of the cane, the

ultrasonic sensor for obstacle detection

Finally, the front side of the handle has

an LED light that serves for indication of

the cane status. It can as well be turned

on by a touchpad gesture as a visual

indicator for others, e.g., in the dark

Again, I have to say that these elements seem not

water and/or dust protected.

The App

I had downloaded the WeWalk app for Android on my Samsung Galaxy A72.

The English version of the app is fine, but it also supports several languages.

However, for German, my native language, the translation is poor. Spanish and

French are poor as well. Main translation problem I found with respect to the

navigation. I would not judge the other languages though.

Pairing the cane with my smartphone via Bluetooth was easy. The only issue I

had upon first time pairing, that the system told me that my smartphone

would not support voice output through the cane. This, however, did not

happen again in subsequent pairing attempts.

Touchpad and Gestures

After pairing, the system prompted me to go through a tutorial how to use the

cane's touchpad and to learn the touchpad gestures used for opening and

closing the app, navigating through the menus, and switching the LED light on

or off.

Some gestures, like sound on/off and LED on/off would require holding the

cane with one hand and perform the gesture with two fingers of the other

hand. This might not always be very practical.

The touchpad did not easily respond to my finger gestures, especially the two-

finger-gestures, even though I was not wearing gloves.

Sound and Sounds

In a noisy environment, especially in a busy street, it is basically impossible to

hear the cane's voice output, even if the volume is set to maximumt. To

understand voice feedback and instructions, one would have to connect

earphones to the smartphone. The same applies when trying to use the voice

assistant to "talk" to your cane.

Hidden in the Notifications tab under the app menu, it is possible to set

different sounds for, e.g., "battery low" warning, "power on". You can even

select a sound for a warning "horn". The Horn feature needs to be enabled in

Preferences and can be activated by touchpad gestures. This can be handy at

times to warn others.

Navigation Options

In the settings of the app, you can select to have distances in metric or imperial

units.

Another option allows you to choose different ways how directions are given.

In addition to the "turn right/left…", directions can be given cardinal, e.g., "go

north-west…", or like hours on an analog clock, e.g., "11 clock" would indicate

to go slightly left. I personally like this "clock-wise" navigation.

Explore

The Explore function lists places like shops, cafes, etc. near you. It is., however,

not as comprehensive as, e.g., Google Maps and missed many shops and food

places in my immediate vicinity.

GPS and Location

Location precision is an issue not only with the WeWalk cane. However, if the

app locates you on the opposite side of the street, starting directions are

mostly not correct. Besides that, there is a repeated "location accuracy"

warning and restoring of location accuracy.

The WeWalk allows the user to actively share his/her current location in

various ways. The drawback is, that the recipient m must have the WeWalk

app to open the and see the location.

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