I Drove Glide: My Thoughts

I test drove Glide today.

I'll describe my experience the best I can.

I attended the third demo put on by the Glidance team including Amos the CEO and the product design team. The demo was at the CNIB in their giant conference room. The entire team was up in Toronto for the Collision Conference where they raised a pre-seed round of funding. This is the funding they need to get the real working prototype in front of investors before raising seed capital.

The demo consisted of a short 15 minute introduction to the team, a description of the product and an overview of the order of events. There was only one unit to test, so folks were invited to mingle, drink, snack and chat until they were called up to test the prototype. There was also a newer prototype on display for us to fondle, poke and prod. The entire product team was on hand and wanted all of the feedback we could give them——good, bad or ugly.

when it was my turn to drive, I took a good look at the older prototype. I got down on my knees, investigated the construction, the wheels, the shape and the material to see what the fuss was about.

If you remember the old Fisher Price popcorn lawnmower toy, you'll have an idea of what it felt like to hold the version 1 prototype handle. The business end of the unit is about the size of a small can of paint or a soccer ball. The version I drove was made of an ABS plastic material and had wheels on either side of the body that were the size of the back wheels of a tricycle. A telescoping handle came out of the top back side of the unit. The grip on the handle is a D-shaped grip—the type you'd find on fancy luggage or a wheelbarrow. On the round part of the D that intersected with the telescoping handle, there was a camera and speaker that faced outward.

Kyle, the product engineer gave me a brief explanation that he'd be walking with me as the prototype brain was in his hand instead of in the unit, but I'd get a sense of what it was like to walk with the unit. The mode I tested was a mode where I could tell Glide where to go and it would steer me there. For example, "Take me to the nearest Starbucks."

I put my cane away and walked with glide around the very large and open conference room. To do this, I tilted the handle backwards like a vacuum cleaner and walked forward. Glide dutifully navigated around chairs, tables, sleeping guide dogs and other obstacles, gently veering left or right to avoid colliding with them. It led me in a straight path until it was time to turn as if it had come to a street corner and was taking me in the direction I'd specified. The turning sensation was noticeable with a gentle curve, so not a sharp 90 degree turn. I tried pushing the unit forward in a straight line as if to override the turn, but the unit kept me on course gently turning me right.

the feeling of walking with the device was disconcerting at first, but something I quickly got used to the more I had my hand on the handle. Unlike being pulled by a dog or person, there is no "tug" sensation. Unlike a cane, you don't feel the contours of the ground vibrating up into your hand and arm the way you would with a rollerball or marshmallow tipped cane. You walk with the device, pushing it along the way you'd roll a suitcase or baby stroller in front of you. The turning of the wheels to avoid obstacles like chairs or people is subtle and for a few seconds, I felt like I was a little drunk as my steps became shorter while I made subtle movements to compensate for the slight left/right motion of the wheels. After the first turn, I was a lot more confident with the device and was taking wider steps and keeping my posture straight.

Kyle stepped right in front of the device and it braked. The braking sensation wasn't jarring or unpleasant. The stop was abrupt without gradually slowing down ahead of time. The sensation felt like my sighted guide had suddenly stopped walking forward and I was in perfect sync with them. I didn't feel like I was continuing forward on inertia. My hand felt like I'd pushed the device into a soft barrier.

After my quick 3 to 4 minute walk with the device, I spoke to Amos and the team and asked lots of questions about things from a product design perspective which is my background. I also investigated the version 2 prototype which was on a table. This version was more polished than the prototype I drove, with larger wheels, a better handle and a closed bottom.

A few notes from my discussions with the team:
• The team is all very experienced, capable and bright. It's very clear that these are the heavy hitters from our community plus others from Bose, Microsoft and others who really want this product to be the best it can be.
• the goal weight of the device is 8 pounds or less, ideally 6 pounds.
• The tech inside is very powerful. I got information on chipsets and they're definitely not giving us junky crap that will be obsolete 3 months after launch.
• The latency of the radar is almost nonexistent for collision avoidance.
• Stereo vision will likely come to the production version with resolution up to 6 m.
• I got a lot of questions answered about privacy. Users might be able to share location data for things like hotels or a shopping mall. however the way the ML and machine vision work, it won't be able to be back-engineered to derive personally identifiable information (PII).
• materials aren't final. The team wants to build a robust device to military spec. Temperature range right now is -5° F (-21° C) to over 100° F (40° C). The construction they intend will be strong and built for enduring the outdoors.
• The goal is IP5 water resistance, so you can't take it swimming.
• the mic array on the unit will be beam forming so as to cut out background sound in noisy environments.

My overall impression is that this is a category changing device, however I think that it will take some rewiring of our brains to get used to not having the "tug" sensation of a sighted guide or a dog or feeling the contours of the ground change in your hand. You could use this device in one hand and a cane in the other in an unfamiliar setting, but for familiar locations, you may wish to use Glide only.

The hardware is impressive. The prototype device didn't feel like it was too light or too heavy and the wheels felt solid for rolling around on a carpeted floor over concrete.

the killer app portion of this will be the software. As mentioned, the chipset is very powerful so it will be intriguing to see what the team will create. With their pre-seed round closed, they have the momentum to build a fully autonomous prototype from the feedback they've received so far.

I'm going to preorder one!