Introducing the Ultrasonic WeWalk Smart Cane 2

Oct. 2, 2025

TDK’s ultrasonic sensors are key components behind WeWalk’s smart cane.

Related To:

Massimo Mascotto, TDK’s Marketing Director for Ultrasonic and Range Sensors, highlights the technology inside WeWalk’s Smart Cane 2 in this video (above). It targets the visually impaired who can utilize an advanced mobility companion to help navigate their environment with feedback from Invensense sensors.

The WeWalk Smart Cane 2 (see figure) utilizes a collection of TDK sensors including SmartMotion MEMS sensors, SmartSound MEMS microphones, and SmartSonic Ultrasonic Time-of-Flight. Users employ the cane in a fashion similar to using a dumb cane, but there’s the added feedback of sensors to enhance the ability to locate surrounding obstacles.

The microphones tie into an intelligent voice assistant while the motion sensors track the movement of the cane. The ultrasonic sensor in the handle allows for tracking of objects above, rather than those below that would be detected when the tip of the cane touches the object.

The cane can tie into Bluetooth devices that enable audio feedback via earbuds or headphones, which can be useful in a noisy environment instead of resorting to an on-board speaker. Custom verbal commands can make it possible to quickly access information about destinations. In addition, buttons on the handle can be used to interact with the on-board processor.

About the Author

William G. Wong | Senior Content Director - Electronic Design and Microwaves & RF

I am Editor of Electronic Design focusing on embedded, software, and systems. As Senior Content Director, I also manage Microwaves & RF and I work with a great team of editors to provide engineers, programmers, developers and technical managers with interesting and useful articles and videos on a regular basis. Check out our free newsletters to see the latest content.

You can send press releases for new products for possible coverage on the website. I am also interested in receiving contributed articles for publishing on our website. Use our template and send to me along with a signed release form.

Check out my blog, AltEmbedded on Electronic Design, as well as his latest articles on this site that are listed below.

You can visit my social media via these links:

I earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Computer Science from Rutgers University. I still do a bit of programming using everything from C and C++ to Rust and Ada/SPARK. I do a bit of PHP programming for Drupal websites. I have posted a few Drupal modules.

I still get a hand on software and electronic hardware. Some of this can be found on our Kit Close-Up video series. You can also see me on many of our TechXchange Talk videos. I am interested in a range of projects from robotics to artificial intelligence.