Beeper Helps Blind Stay on Track

Sasha Krapivin, 10, was tugging on his mother's sweater. He wanted to drive the miniature pedal car one more time. For other children his age, it was a toy they had long since outgrown, but for Sasha, who is completely blind, it was a big deal.


"First he was afraid to be on his own, without someone holding his elbow," said Tatyana Krapivina, Sasha's mother. "But in just two months, it has become one of his favorite games. It's as if he saw a beam of light in the darkness."


That light in the darkness came in the form of a new Russian invention which allows Sasha much greater freedom of movement in everything from playing with toys to running a foot race. The invention, a headset through which Sasha receives directions, has given him a much greater confidence generally, his mother said.


On Wednesday, Sasha was one of some 60 blind children and adults who gathered in Moscow's Red Army stadium for a presentation and demonstration of the device. The event, sponsored by a number of Moscow banks and charity organizations, turned into a lively sports festival, as children, who had never before moved on their own, were walking, running and even driving with the headsets.


"Before, all the blind sportsmen used to compete in pairs with their seeing partners, called leaders," said Leonid Kreindlin, the inventor of the Krein, who claimed that the device is the first of its kind in the world. "Only now, with the help of a tiny orientation device, each blind person can compete independently."


Kreindlin, 54, an electronic engineer, said he got the idea for the Krein while jogging through the streets of Moscow in the evening. After a few falls and collisions in the waning light, Kreindlin said he began wondering how the blind might run.


The Krein, which was developed with funding from a nonprofit group for the handicapped called Peleng, consists of headphones with a receiver and a separate hand-held transmitting unit. By pressing the buttons on the unit, a seeing person sends electronic signals to the blind: a signal in the right headphone -- turn right, left headphone -- turn left, a long signal in both -- go straight, a short signal in both -- stop.


The device enables totally blind people to compete independently in such sports as running, speed walking and bicycling, said Yevgeny Lyapin, 58, who runs sports programs for the blind in Moscow. Before the invention of the Krein, Lyapin said blind people would run to the voice of a seeing person or to the sound of a bell.


Lyapin said his club has so far acquired only 10 Kreins because the units cost about 1.5 million rubles ($326) each.


"We raise funds by selling food items, with reduced municipal taxes, in the kiosks," Lyapin said, adding that the group sold everything from watermelons to fish. "Then we distribute the orientation devices to the blind free of charge."


Not everybody at Wednesday's event was optimistic on the future of the innovation.


"It's a joy and entertainment for our small blind children, who can finally move in space without the help of adults. But, in modern times of space shuttles, it's so primitive," said a skeptical Tamara Pankova, 45, a blind athlete who has been a World and European champion in track-and-field events for the blind.


Pankova said the crude signals heard by the blind athletes do not provide adequate warning of all possible obstacles. And, she criticized the Krein for having a limited 50-meter range and being capable of supervising only one athlete at a time.


Peleng plans to hold regular sports competitions for the blind in Moscow, including an Moscow Open Championship, where all competitors would use the Krein, and an all-blind marathon along the Garden Ring in May.


For children Sasha's age, however, such formal sporting events seem to pale in comparison to the simple joys of operating a pedal car. On Wednesday, he gave his mother no peace as she talked with a reporter. "Mom, please, " Sasha pleaded, "stop talking and let me drive the car one more time."