Four Pakistani CS Students Build AI Haptic Jacket to Aid the Visually Impaired

Four computer science students at Sukkur IBA University in Pakistan have developed IRIS (Interactive Responsive Inclusive System), a smart jacket designed to help visually impaired people navigate their surroundings. The jacket uses three ultrasonic sensors to detect obstacles up to two metres away and translates their position and proximity into proportional vibration patterns across seven haptic motors worn on the body. A Raspberry Pi 4 paired with Microsoft Azure Computer Vision adds an AI layer, capturing visual frames every three seconds to provide additional spatial awareness beyond what the sensors detect. The project was motivated by the limitations of traditional aids like white canes, which cannot detect mid-air obstacles at chest or head height, and guide dogs, which are costly and scarce in developing regions. The student team built the system without research grants or dedicated hardware labs, iterating through multiple prototypes to refine the haptic feedback mechanism.