Budget and Market Research

Budget

This table gives a breakdown of any costs incurred while developing prototypes for the Opticane. Many items such as the HS322 Servo Motor and Raspberry Pi 2 Model B were used as Proof-of-Concept hardware, to be eventually replaced by smaller, more cost efficient versions that will be used in the final commercial product. Also the miniature light bulbs were used as proof of concept haptic feedback for an earlier demo; showing how we could translate LiDAR data to haptic feedback information.

Target Market

According to the WHO there are 285 million visually impaired people in the world of whom 39 million are said to have some form of visual blindness. [1] According to the National Federation of the Blind however, not all visually impaired people use a white cane. [2] In fact, further research from the Perkins School of the Blind shows that a lot of blind people instead rely on a sighted guide despite the fact that the White Cane is said to give visually impaired users more independence. [3] It is clear that there must be something lacking in the standard White Cane that is preventing its widespread use. Many users of whitecanes point to the issue of not being able to use the whitecane to detect objects above the ground, e.g at waist height.

This puts them at risk from bumping into signs, branches etc. Also a white cane cannot detect someone running up quickly behind a user, something that most sighted people with peripheral vision take for granted. When first brainstorming ideas for Opticane, these were the problems we were committed to solving.

Competitors

Opticane is emerging onto a market with few competitors and a big need for innovation. A 2017 study concluded that "the needs of the visually impaired and blind people are greater than ever before" and assistive technology is a field "expanding at a swift pace." [4] Despite these advancements, there is a lack of affordable, usable and modern technology for the visually impaired. For navigating a city, often visually imaired people are reliant on voice guided maps, as part of say Google maps, which are limited in terms of certain countries and certain languages (i.e mostly English). [5] While there are 'Smart Canes' on the market to aid navigation most options are expensive, require a smartphone for use and do not work in all conditions such as rain.

At Opticane we asked ourselves, what are holding back the current products on the market from becoming more prevalent in use with the visually impaired community? A major drawback for the smart cane is limited use due to design flaws. In a Blind Life review of the WeWalk cane reviewers lamented its restricted uses- "...It also is not waterproof. And you can't use it in temperatures above 90ﾟ[Fahrenheit] or below 32...(WeWalk) It just scares me it's not waterproof…” [6] This clearly showed to us that waterproofing is a big concern and for the 3d models and the final product we designed a rubber handle as well as plastic casing for other components to ensure it can work in rainy conditions. Another disadvantage of many smart canes is that they force a user to hold the cane differently than they may be used to. A current prototype of a smart cane, called FiveSense, requires users to hold the cane handle at an angle to the rest of the cane in a way not reflective of how visually impaired users grip their normal canes. The WeWalk cane is also shown to be best used holding the cane in a pencil-like grip. However this is not the most popular method to hold a cane- that being the handshake grip. [7] At Opticane we designed our handle to accommodate for the handshake grip allowing the majority of blind users to easily adapt from their old white cane to our smart cane- with moulded grooves so users know where to put their fingers. Additionally we have designed other handle grips to accommodate these other gripping methods, such as the pencil-grip and are thinking of adding a custom ordering service to have handles made to the custom-spec of a user at an increased cost.

The significant price of these smart canes is another explanation for their lack of use. The WeWalk smart cane is currently on sale for $600 while the FiveSense cane is still a prototype unavailable to the public. [8] This is a huge rise in cost, compared to the average white cane which at most costs $50, so it's clear why some users are hesitant to make the investment. [9] There are cheaper smart canes such as Assitech’s SmartCane, which retails for $50. This product, however, is limited in its functionality; only being able to detect objects up to 3m away and only has one haptic feedback motor; limiting the range of haptic feedback. It also is just an extension that can be attached to a cane is provided by the Indian government. Similarly, there are canes at StrideLight that provide an LED for low light circumstances but no other innovations. All other products in the realm of "smart canes" are mainly academically focused.

This is why at Opticane, we were committed to bringing a product with all the functionality of the more expensive canes as well as further innovations but at a fraction of the cost. This makes our product accessible to a wider range of visually impaired users.

Commercial Cost

Using costs from various sources, we have calculated the total manufacturing cost of a single Opticane. It was important from us for the get go, to select technolo​gy that is not just functionally accurate and small but also cost-effective. This means we can drive down the price of our product making it more competitive to other smart canes on the market and still leave a significant profit margin for the organisation. 

If we were to price Opticane at £110 ($150), we would be a quarter of the price of our competitor (WeWalk) at $600 all the while retaining a profit margin of 33%.

We were also thinking of having a custom-order option for different grips for the handle to cater to specific users needs. While we don’t know the exact costs of this rubber moulding, we can estimate them being around twice that of the mass-produced rubber mould. We would also employ two carbon-rods, one thicker and hollowed out than the other to allow the cane to retract for storage. These rods would be slightly more expensive (£9.99) giving the custom order a 'premium' look. This would increase the total cost to £86.73 plus the extra working hours to order the rubber mould we can round up to estimate a total cost of £100 ($137) . Thereby if we sold the Custom Order canes for £160 ($220), we would still be under half the price of our competitor and with a 60% profit margin.