Smart Shopping Cart for Visually Impaired Individuals

Abstract

Vision is one of our most important tools to help us survive in the world. Not being able to see well or at all is only the tip of the iceberg that people who are visually impaired have to deal with. Along with that, comes a whole new set of societal challenges, stigma, fears, and beliefs making these groups a minority and not shedding enough light on issues that they face is more common than we realize. While everyone in today’s world chases the buzzwords artificial intelligence and robotics to create complex technologies to solve problems like the mundaneness of a task, it would be incorrect to forget about the bigger picture that hints at helping mankind save the rest of it. The visually impaired face a variety of issues right from not being able to navigate along a path to the very basic grocery shopping at a shopping mall. This paper proposes an idea of a smart shopping cart that assists the visually impaired to navigate through various isles of a shopping mart and help them purchase the items they wish to buy with the help of braille assisted buttons and haptic feedback control without feeling the need for any human assistance.

Empowering Elderly Individuals through the Intelligent Shopping Trolley

“…This allows for precise distance measurement and enables the trolley to effectively detect and avoid obstacles. The distance can be calculated as follows: Distance= Time×Speed=time×0.034cm/µs (1) As sound travels at approximately 340 meters per second. This corresponds to about 29.41 μs.…”

“…This ensures smooth connectivity and compatibility among the various components involved in the shopping process. The Internet of Things (IoT) field is experiencing rapid growth in the world of wireless telecommunications [1]. Its purpose is to enable computers to interact with their surroundings and access information about devices and objects without the need for direct human involvement [2].…”

“…Researchers have been exploring various approaches to enable autonomous navigation for smart shopping trolleys. For example, a new automated smart cart system for modern shopping centers was presented, along with Android application-controlled approaches [1]. These advancements in autonomous navigation provide the trolleys with the ability to move independently, allowing elderly individuals to navigate the store without physical exertion.…”

Fog computing-assisted path planning for smart shopping

“…Some SSC-V1 are equipped with ease of accessibility systems. Shete et al [ 45 ] added braille-translated buttons to the cart to improve user experience and system reliability. A similar technology with an autonomous moving cart is presented in [ 14 ].…”