Development of an ultrasonic cane as a navigation aid for the blind people (original) (raw)
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Smart Walking Stick for Visually Impaired People Using Ultrasonic Sensors and Arduino
—This paper presents the smart walking stick based on ultrasonic sensors and Arduino for visually impaired people. There are approximately 37 million people across the globe who are blind according to the World Health Organization. People with visual disabilities are often dependent on external assistance which can be provided by humans, trained dogs, or special electronic devices as support systems for decision making. Thus, we were motivated to develop a smart white cane to overcome these limitations. We accomplished this goal by adding ultrasonic sensors at specific positions to the cane that provided information about the environment to the user by activating the buzzer sound. We proposed low cost and light weight system designed with microcontroller that processes signal and alerts the visually impaired person over any obstacle, water or dark areas through beeping sounds. The system consists of obstacle and moisture detection sensors for receiving, processing and sending signals to the alarm system which finally alerts the user for prompt action. The system was designed, programmed using C language and tested for accuracy and checked by the visually impaired person. Our device can detect obstacles within the distance of about 2m from the user. Keyword-Ultrasonic sensor, Arduino ATmega328 Microcontroller, Mobility aid, Visually Impaired Person, Alarm system I. INTRODUCTION Visually impaired people are the people who finds it difficult to recognize the smallest detail with healthy eyes. Those who have the visual acuteness of 6/60 or the horizontal range of the visual field with both eyes open have less than or equal to 20 degrees. These people are regarded as blind. A survey by WHO (World Health Organization) carried out in 2011 estimates that in the world, about 1% of the human population is visually impaired (about 70 million people) and amongst them, about 10% are fully blind (about 7 million people) and 90% (about 63 million people) with low vision according to [1]. The main problem with blind people is how to navigate their way to wherever they want to go. Such people need assistance from others with good eyesight. As described by WHO, 10% of the visually impaired have no functional eyesight at all to help them move around without assistance and safely. The figure 1 below is a chart showing the percent of blind people across the globe. This study proposes a new technique for designing a smart stick to help visually impaired people that will provide them navigation. The conventional and archaic navigation aids for persons with visual impairments are the walking cane (also called white cane or stick) and guide dogs which are characterized by a many imperfections. The most critical shortcomings of these aids include: essential skills and training phase, range of motion, and very insignificant information communicated been communicated. Our approach modified this cane with some electronics components and sensors, the electronic aiding devices are designed to solve such issues. The ultrasonic sensors, water sensor, buzzer, and RF transmitter/Receiver are used to record information about the presence of obstacles on the road. Ultrasonic sensor have the capacity to detect any obstacle within the distance range of 2cm-450cm. Therefore whenever there is an obstacle in this range it will alert the user. Water sensor is used to detect if there is water in path of the user. Most blind guidance systems use ultrasound because of its immunity to the environmental noise. With the rapid advances of modern technology both in hardware and software it has become easier to provide intelligent navigation system to the visually impaired.
Guidance device for visually impaired people based on ultrasonic signals and open hardware
Visual impairment is a complex challenge that affects people of all ages, and it is estimated that around 2.2 billion people worldwide lack adequate access to medical treatment and support. In Latin America, there is a lack of attention to people with visual disabilities, evidenced by poor urban infrastructure and lack of compliance with inclusion laws. Some projects stand out for the use of prototypes with artificial vision technology, global positioning system (GPS) and smart canes. Therefore, the objective of the project is to use ultrasonic sensors and a low-cost electronic device coupled to canes, for obstacle detection and mobility using an open hardware embedded system. The results confirmed the efficiency in the detection and operation of the ultrasonic sensor by activating the light emitting diode (LED), the buzzer and the vibrating motor according to the programmed distances. Challenges were identified, such as adapting the sensor to the tilt of the cane and the importance of accurate calibration of the ultrasonic sensor. The system met its objectives by detecting objects in a range of 2 to 50 cm and providing sound alerts to improve the perception of blind people.
This paper presents a micro-controller based ultrasonic system developed to help the blind person navigate in closed spaces and be in contact with nearby traffic lights by sensing them and sending a signal for the traffic light to change to red signal. The system consists of two related but independent systems. The first one is a specially designed helmet with ultrasonic sensors which is equipped with RF circuit, and the second is a hand tool again equipped with ultrasonic sensors. The sensors are in the form of ultrasonic transmitters and receivers, and are configured to measure the distance to obstacles in-front of the sensor pair. The paper describes the design and testing of the system with blind people.
Electronic Travel Aid for the Blind
This paper presents a simple concept and design for a travel aid for the visually impaired. The proposed device uses ultrasonic signal in sensing and detecting an object (obstacles). The aid can inform the user about the distance of the detected obstacles by means of tactile vibrations. A prototype device called the intelligent walking stick (INSTICK) was developed under this concept. The INSTICK involves four main portions, ultrasonic transmitters, ultrasonic receiver, control unit and the output portions that consists of a vibrator motor and a speech synthesizer unit. Concept of radio detection is being employed here to receive the returned echo of ultrasonic signals reflected by the obstacles. The echo travel time is used to determine the distance from the user to the obstacle. A PIC microcontroller is used to control the transceiver and process the received signal to an audible format through speech synthesizer. A few tests and survey were carried out involving visually impaired and despite some limitations satisfactory results were observed.
ULTRSONIC BLIND WALKING STICK FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED
The man kind has been suffering with many diseases and abnormalities. Blindness is one of the disabilities which is very common and difficult to treat. The main motive of this paper is to help the blind people with a good and easy to use blind walking stick that uses a microcontroller to detect obstacles in front of him with many additional features which are quite cost effective. The stick will be meant for the rehabilitation of the blind people. The product is based on the distance measurement property of the ultrasonic sensors. It will measure the distance and velocity of the obstacle in the way of the person and will alarm the person about any obstacle (moving/stationary). The stick will allow detection of obstacles on the ground, holes and pits, uneven surfaces, steps, and other typical obstacles in the path of the person. Since the device is incorporated with wireless module it will be very handy and will be much easier to use as compared to the similar products available in the market. The white cane or stick is mostly preferred by the blind people for walking. But the limitation to the white cane is that the information obtained by the blind user is only by touching the objects by the tip of the cane, which is not completely reliable. Through this proposed paper we offer to give a solution which overcomes the limitations of the ordinary white cane. The ultrasonic blind walking stick is fully automated, comfortable to use and cheap. In other words, it is quite economic over the conventional method.
Development of a Technical Device Named GPS Based Walking Stick for the Blind
Rajshahi University Journal of Science & Engineering, 2015
Generally, blind people use a traditional cane (known as white cane) for moving from one place to another. Although, white cane is the international symbol of blindness, it could not help them to detect place and to avoid obstacles. In this paper, we represent a model of walking stick for blind people. It consists of GPS module, GPS Antenna, Arduino, ultrasonic sensor and buzzer. This stick can detect place and obstacles. Position detection part is done with GPS module and GPS antenna. Ultrasonic sensor is used for detecting obstacles. Here, the buzzer produces two types of sound. When the blind reaches to his destination, buzzer buzzes continuously. When the blind faces any obstacles, buzzer buzzes with interruption. By discovering these two types of sound, blind can be confirmed about his destination and also can avoid obstacles in front of him. The whole system is designed to be small, light and is used in conjunction with the white cane so that it could ensure safety of the blind.
Development of Obstacle and Pit-Detecting Ultrasonic Walking Stick for the Blind
FUOYE Journal of Engineering and Technology
This project focused on improving mobility for a blind person by creating an obstacle and pit detecting walking stick using ultrasonic sensors. The project comprised of both hardware and software. The hardware consists of ultrasonic sensors, buzzers and a microcontroller, while the software consists of Arduino Integrated Development Environment (Arduino IDE), which was used to program the microcontroller. A Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) casing was used to house the hardware components. The ultrasonic sensor that detects obstacles was programmed to detect obstacles at a distance of 100 cm or below and causes the buzzer to sound so as to alert the blind person. Another ultrasonic sensor was programmed to identify pit at a depression of 18 cm and above. This stick was tested to detect obstacles by 80 different blindfolded individuals within a room with different objects placed at different positions. Results showed that the percentage reduction of collision rate when comparing the developed...
Ultrasonic Navigation System for the visually impaired & blind pedestrians
The main aim of this paper is to expand the electronic travel aid for the blind and visually impaired pedestrians by emerging into the ultrasonic technology. The paper represents an innovative project design and implementation of an Ultrasonic Navigation system in order to provide fully automatic obstacle avoidance with audible notification for blind pedestrians. This blind guidance system is safe, reliable and costeffective.
A Navigation Aid for Blind People
2011
This paper presents a navigation aid for the blind based on a microcontroller with synthetic speech output. The system consists of two vibrators, two ultrasonic sensors mounted on the user's shoulders and another one integrated into the cane. It is able to give information to the blind about urban walking routes and to provide real-time information on the distance of over-hanging obstacles within 6 m along the travel path ahead of the user. The suggested system can then sense the surrounding environment via sonar sensors and sending vibro-tactile feedback to the user of the position of the closest obstacles in range. For the ultrasonic cane, it is used to detect any obstacle on the ground. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed system for blind navigation.