Design and Analysis of a Smart Blind Stick for Visual Impairment

Abstract

For a long time, visually impaired person uses a white cane to guide their way when travel outside. The white cane has been useful for the blinds in improving their mobility but unfortunately the white cane has its limitation. One of the shortcomings of the white cane is that, it could only detect the obstacles that are within the contact ranges of the white cane. This problem sometimes could cause the blind person to be in trouble because of insufficient time to detect and warn new obstacles in front of the blind person. This research proposes a walking stick system that has two functions; to classify an obstacles height whether it is low or high and to detect a front hole. The ability to detect the height of an obstacle will help the visually impaired to either step over or avoid the obstacle. The ability to detect a hole should help the visually impaired to avoid it in time. The walking stick will use two ultrasonic sensors for the detection of obstacle height, and a laser sensor for the detection of hole. A controller will be used to monitor and analyze the data from the sensors and feedback to the user through a vibration sensor and buzzer. The algorithm to differentiate the height of obstacles is working well and it is able to differentiate high or low obstacles. The laser ranging sensor has successfully been tested for hole detection. Therefore, the walking stick with ultrasonic and laser sensors will help more visually impaired to move around much faster and feeling more safer due to improved warning system for their movement.

Effect of Perceptual Training with Sound-Guided and Kinesthetic Feedback on Human 3D Sound Localization Capabilities

“…It has several limitations, such as detecting obstacles and manholes in time. A smart blind stick using assistive technologies such as ultrasonic sensors or cameras to detect obstacle heights and a laser sensor for detecting manholes has improved the mobility of visually impaired people [2]. However, this may only work in some scenarios and situations.…”

Obstacle Detection and Assistance for Visually Impaired Individuals Using an IoT-Enabled Smart Blind Stick

“…From many decades the Researchers are trying to understand their need and spending time to develop a helping tool for them [4]. Later on, "Smart Stick" is found very essential to assist the visually impaired persons to alert them about obstacles, informing about locations and guiding them to avoid danger places [5,6]. Traditionally, the cane used by the blind was constructed of wood; however, the aluminum cane has since supplanted it.…”

Smart stick for blind people with wireless emergency notification

“…The speaker will help the visually impaired individual to hear how far an object is in front of him. In addition, the system is embedded with a Bluetooth module that sends a signal to the mobile app whenever there is an emergency condition which is activated either by pressing a button on the stick or with the position sensor [10]- [12]. The main oobjectives in this research paper are designing a smart stick using an Arduino Nano platform, ultrasonic sensors, position sensor, speaker, and Bluetooth module with a mobile app for an emergency condition, the second objective is implementing this design of smart stick that can find the distances with obstacles, detect objects in front, and track the blind's location in an emergency condition [13]- [18].…”