An unusual “make-a-thon” was held recently in Los Gatos that could lead to breakthroughs for sight-impaired people who use wheelchairs. Los Gatos resident Danny Stickney, who suffers from cerebral palsy and cortical vision impairment, was the subject of the make-a-thon that brought eight volunteer engineers to town to develop an “edge detection system” for his wheelchair.

Danny’s brother, Stanford, said he can see out of a “sliver” of his right eye. “But his vision is sporadic. It’s akin to turning a light switch on and off,” Stanford said.

Although Danny said the make-a-thon was “the toughest week ever,” he’s happy with the results. “Now, I don’t have to worry about hitting stairs, walls or streets, and I can back up without having to look,” he said.

That’s because the edge detection system notifies Danny when he’s near stairs or other ledges. “If he gets too close, the sensors initiate a beeping sound providing Danny, in audio format, a way to be aware of his surroundings,” Stanford said. “We also set up edge detectors to assist him in navigating up and down ramps.”

That’s important since Danny has fallen before. One time, he misjudged a ramp at Saratoga High School and went flying down the stairs.

The make-a-thon was the idea of UC-Berkeley computer scientists Tomas Vega and Pierre Karashchuk. Stanford met them when he was a student at UC-Berkeley.

“They reached out to me. They were trying to design a mind control wheelchair when they called for the make-a-thon,” Stanford said. “Tomas, in particular, shared his passion for helping special needs individuals, and Danny has a passion for using technology to improve the lives of people with special needs.”

During the make-a-thon, the engineers also worked on an augmented reality headset.

“Augmented reality allows you to program goggles or eyeglasses so that stairs are always red or tables are always green,” Stanford said. “People who are blind can often see some colors. Danny sees yellow and red.”

However, the augmented reality effort took a back seat to the wheelchair applications.

Last week, Danny and Stanford took the wheelchair to UC-Berkeley, where Vega continues to tweak the technology. For example, it was determined that putting sensors on the side of the wheelchair could cause problems if Danny tries to maneuver through a narrow doorway.

“Maybe there should be sensors in the wheelchair’s seat back that tell Danny if he’s too far left or too far right,” Stanford said. “What happens when he hits a puddle? Will the sensor in his footrest go out? Right now, the wheelchair works, but it needs to be better.”

For his part, Danny sees the edge detection wheelchair as liberating. “I want to ride the bus by myself, and I have friends in Half Moon Bay I need to go see,” he said.

Danny is a 2012 Saratoga High School graduate and is enrolled in the College of Adaptive Arts in San Jose. He also sits on the board of TASH, The Association of Persons with Severe Handicaps.