What turned me into Scientist

Its a very old story. We need to go some 20 years back. I was then living in not so populated , not so overcrowded, but a very quiet city. I had some people around who made some thoughts generated in my mind. Those were a bunch of blind people, not together, but around me. I remember two of them prominently. He was blind and he had to take the support of his wife to go any where around. Some thing similar we see almost everyday at the railway stations. Then there was one who had this amazing stick which used to rest in his bag folded when he is not moving but on a move it used to guide him to whatever place he wish.
There were instances when both these options used to fail. First persons wife was not always available to guide him and the stick of the second not always showed the right path.
While I was seeing these failures, one day I met a friend who had just bought new shoes which glow a light when you jump or put pressure in a specific manner. Now I don't remember the technology he told behind it. But these two different observations initiated a chain of thoughts in my mind. I started thinking of a technology where blind people get some such shoe which will guide them and control their movement. I don't remember on what lines I was thinking then, but some kind of sensor which covers a spherical range of some 2 meters say is fixed with shoes and based on different type of signals sent by the sensor, user can take steps to avoid any kind of accident.
I tried to gather some information and tried learning few things which I thought could bring this plan in reality. But it all failed. I didn't succeed in it mainly because of lack of knowledge and also lack of access to knowledge then. With time, the thought was sent somewhere in the back of mind.
Something similar is in reality now with sensors used to guide Robots, or automatic chairs, or the vehicle on mars to run around sensing the obstructions coming in the way. But I still see blind people moving around with somebody's help or still the stick is assisting them. I heard of shoes that convert mechanical energy into electrical energy efficient enough to charge your mobile. But I haven't heard of shoes that convert the sound waves coming through the earth into signal indicating the movement of any vehicle coming towards you.

Though I became a scientist, I chose a different path and landed in a field which can not help to work on this subject. But I will be very happy if I meet blind person aided with some such technology and walking around without any assistance. Does somebody think like this?