Farmer Noah
A System and Process for Development of Spatial Awareness, Mental Mapping and Position and Orientation Tracking. We like to call it a method optimizing One’s skills for mastering One’s Environment.
Train for:
- Maximum exploitation of non-visual cues available in environments.
- Improved mobility and body orientation discipline.
- Farmer Noah is for young people, Bandmaster Stevie is for adults.
Training people to master their environments
dxdt Engineering and Research, LLC has developed a brand new system and method for training blind children and adults to master their environments.
In the children’s version of this system, eight electronic “farm animals” are positioned randomly within a room or any indoor or outdoor environment.
There are four different types of farm animals. The orientation and mobility (O&M) trainee is challenged to find the pairs of animals.
When one animal is found, and tapped with a cane, it makes the sound of the animal it represents. The system registers the animal.
If the next animal the trainee “finds” is the same kind of animal, those animals have been paired and are taken out of play (they are put on the ark).
The process is repeated until all of the animals have been paired and placed on the ark. The system records the time required to locate all of the pairs of animals.
How Farmer Noah works with non-visual cues
The paths between the animals are characterized by different objects, scents, sounds and sensations that most sighted people take for granted.
While the trainee is completing the exercise- which seems like a game – our system is challenging and training them to detect and use all of the characteristics of the environment to make mental maps that they can then use to navigate with more safety and confidence.
So, what are these non-visual cues?
The non-visual cues will be different for different environments. They will include:
- The edges of carpets
- Furniture legs
- Door jams
- Radiant heat through windows
- Cool drafts through windows
- Sounds of household utilities
- Moving air through air vents
- Scents of plants, polishes, or foods
The list goes on and on.
Our system provides a basis for the Blind and Deaf Blind to develop, practice and optimize key skills that exploit non-visual cues like navigation beacons in their surroundings to improve orientation and mobility. More importantly perhaps, Farmer Noah focuses on the basic cognitive skills of noticing, localizing, and maintaining reference to mental maps constructed around non-visual cues in any environment.
Farmer Noah is not a beaconing system. It is a system to develop and enhance cognitive skills that will endure and self-reinforce long after training with Farmer Noah has been completed. These skills are useful in any environment to improve confidence, safety and skill in navigation, orientation and mobility.
Where are we now with the Farmer Noah concept?
Dr. Christopher Hekimian, the Principal Scientist for dxdt Engineering and Research, LLC has developed several technologies to assist and enable the visually impaired. Most notably is the Farmer Noah system. Farmer Noah is currently in development and will be available for purchase in early 2025. This version of the system will have the following attributes:
- iPad supported
- Compact, nestable units that are Easy to transport.
- Rechargeable units
- Bluetooth Connectivity
- Upgradeable to the adult version “Bandmaster Stevie, and to the Deaf-Blind version.
- Usable by blind O&M Trainers
You can watch this Farmer Noah introductory video or Juan Avila’s video of Dr. Christopher Hekimian explaining the system at the NFB 2023 event.
Chris was also interviewed by Jonathan Mosen of the important “Living Blindfully” podcast. You can listen to the podcast here (it starts at time mark 1:08:03). You can also access the transcript of the entire podcast here.
This is our most informative presentation that we presented to AER BVI Virginia in October 2024.
The Farmer Noah Team wants to recognize their friends at NFB VA and congratulate them on their excellent State Conference in Williamsburg in November. We loved demonstrating Farmer Noah to your members, children and O&M experts!
If your organization is interested in supporting your clients with the state of the art in cognitive O&M training and preparation for traditional O&M training concepts, let’s talk. We are also interested in supporting research involving the Farmer Noah concept. Please contact us so we can discuss how we might work together to improve the skills, confidence and quality of life for the severely vision impaired. We have brochures available for download below.
Bandmaster Stevie
The Bandmaster Stevie concept is the adult version of Farmer Noah. With Bandmaster Stevie, the objects are musical instruments and as objects are paired in succession, a 1, 2, 3 and 4-track musical piece is constructed and heard.
