Fireworks are not very inclusive – for the visually impaired, they’re little more than loud bursts of noise and smoke.
But Disney, ever the inducer of warm feelings, is working on something called “Feeling Fireworks”, a tactile firework show that can be felt by visually impaired and blind people. The project is “aimed at making fireworks more inclusive for blind and visually impaired users, in a novel experience that can be shared by all.”
The tactile effect is created by directing specific water jets onto the rear of a flexible latex screen where people can feel the vibrations and the movement of the water. There are different nozzles for different firework effects and the tactile fireworks, according to the website, “are meaningful analogs to the visual fireworks they they represent.”
A Kinect camera also tracks the movement of the user, which makes the display interactive, while a projector at the front creates a corresponding image of the firework to make it truly inclusive for everyone. The low-cost approach allows for dynamic tactile effects to be rendered with high spatial resolution, and could potentially be used for making large-scale tactile displays, or for other use.
And the bonus: they are completely noise and pollution free.
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