New Audible Basketball for the Blind
Beeping Ball Helps Blind Players Locate, Dribble, and Shoot
May 21, 2009
The Hadley School for the Blind (Winnetka, Illinois, USA) has received the first prototype of a “beeping” basketball designed by students at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Terre Haute, Indiana, USA) that enables blind and visually impaired people to locate, dribble, and shoot baskets.
The regulation Spalding Infusion basketball has an aluminum tube (replacing the ball’s self-inflating pump) that houses a micro-controller, amplifier, dynamic cone speaker, and custom circuit board to emit a continuous tone. The Rose-Hulman team also designed a second sound emitter that attaches to a backboard with Velcro so players know where to shoot.
Hadley’s Audible Basketball Makes Game Accessible
Though not the first basketball designed for the blind, the Hadley ball solves previous models’ main design flaws, e.g. imbedded bells that didn’t ring when the ball was held or in the air (resulting in frustration and injuries), or sound-emitting foam balls that lacked a basketball’s feel and function.
A continuous tone enables players to track the ball down after shots — a significant improvement according to Hadley vice president of development and communications George Abbott, one of the first to try the ball.
As a child, Abbott, who has been blind since birth, leashed a boombox to a backboard to orient his shots. The music provided a target, but he only had the deceptive sound of the bounce to locate the ball.
“The audible basketball felt great,” Abbott says. “I could hear the ball off the rim, could hunt it down, and reposition myself for the next shot.”
The Hadley ball immediately enables blind and visually impaired players to shoot baskets and play HORSE, and Abbott feels a high comfort level with a regulation ball that is easy to dribble, track, and shoot will spark the development of a modified team game. “I can see a blind and visually impaired basketball league being set up as the audible ball is perfected,” Abbott says.
Audible Basketball Wins Engineering Awards
Disappointing experiences with bell-filled balls inspired Hadley School president Charles Young to ask Rose-Hulman board member and past Hadley chairman of the board Clyde Willian if his engineering students could develop a better one.
Four students — Ian Thomas, Mitchell Thomas, Justin Fuller and Thomas Kelley — accepted the challenge as part of their senior project. The team sought to adapt a standard basketball rather than design a new type of ball. Their model won the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering’s Senior Design Symposium “Best Project” and “Best Presentation” Awards.
In addition to the Hadley School, which funded its design, the audible basketball been used by students at the Indiana School for the Blind (Indianapolis).
Abbott says many issues must be worked out before Hadley’s audible basketball can be produced, but that the prototype represents a breakthrough in making one of the world’s most popular sports accessible to the blind.
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