WASHINGTON - A new software tool creating virtual maps will help the visually impaired navigate through unfamiliar places.

The visually impaired often rely on others to provide cues on navigating through their environment. The problem with this method is that it doesn't give them the tools to venture out on their own, says Orly Lahav of the School of Education and Porter School for Environmental Studies at Tel Aviv University (TAU).

Lahav's new software tool is connected to an existing joystick, a 3-D haptic device, that interfaces with the user through the sense of touch.

The tool, called the BlindAid, was recently unveiled at the "Virtual Rehabilitation 2009 International Conference," where Lahav demonstrated case studies of people using it at the Carroll Centre for the Blind in Newton, Massachusetts.

There, a partially blind woman first explored the virtual environment of the centre - as well as the campus and 10 other sites, including a four-story building. After just three or four sessions, the woman was able to effectively navigate and explore real-world target sites wearing a blindfold.

The software can also be programmed to emit sounds - a cappuccino machine firing up in a virtual caf, or phones ringing when the explorer walks by a reception desk.

Exploring 3D virtual worlds based on maps of real-world environments, the visually impaired are able to "feel out" streets, sidewalks and hallways with the joystick as they move the cursor like a white cane on the computer screen that they will never see.

Before going out alone, the new solution gives them the control, confidence and ability to explore new streets, thus making unknown spaces familiar. It allows people who can't see to make mental maps in their mind.

Lahav's software takes physical information from our world and digitises it for transfer to a computer, with which the user interacts using a mechanical device, says a TAU release.

"This tool lets the blind 'touch' and 'hear' virtual objects and deepens their sense of space, distance and perspective," says Lahav.