Sensor Based Smart Stick For Blind Person Navigation
God gifted sense of vision to the human being is an important aspect of our life. But there are some unfortunate people who lack the ability of visualizing things. The visually impaired, who have to rely on others for travelling and other activities. This paper aims at to provide one such theoretical model which incorporates the latest technologies to provide efficient and smart electronic aid to the blind. We have used Ultrasonic sensors which helps a blind person by detecting the obstacles around him and Colour Detection Sensor for a particular path which he will use. Blue-tooth module which along with GPS technology and an Android mobile application for blind, which will provide desired location and in panic situations will send SMS alert to registered mobile numbers. This system will provide a convenient and easy navigation aid for unsighted which will helps in artificial vision.
Introduction
Vision is the most important part of human physiology as 83% of information human being gets from the environment is via sight. The 2011 statistics by the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are 285 billion people in world with visual impairment, 39 billion of which are blind and 246 with low vision. The traditional and oldest mobility aids for persons with visual impairments are the walking cane (also called white cane or stick) and guide dogs. The most important drawbacks of these aids are necessary skills and training phase, range of motion and very little information conveyed. With the rapid advances of modern technology, both in hardware and software front has brought potential to provide intelligent navigation capabilities. Recently there has been a lot of Electronic Travel Aids (ETA) designed and devised to help the blind navigate independently and safely. Visually impaired persons are defined as those with reduced visual capacity. They can be blind or partially sighted people. These conditions often limit people’s capabilities to perform common tasks and affect their quality of life. Blindness may result from a disease, injury or other conditions that limit vision. Legal blindness means that a person has vision that measures 20/200 or worse, explains the Iowa Department for the Blind. For example, someone with 20/200 vision sees an object from 20 feet that a person with perfect 20/20 vision is able to see from 200 feet. Knowing the challenges blindness creates may help sighted people understand what blind people face each day. People with complete blindness or low vision often have a difficult time self-navigating outside well-known environments.
Every alternate day we hear news about person missing. Many of these include blind person. It is really difficult for blind person to move in this world. There are chances that they can get lost; in such cases it is really difficult for their family members to find them. The aim of this project is to assist blind people to safely move among obstacles and other hurdles faced by them in their daily life.
Literature survey
Blind Aid Stick has been a popular project with constant enhancements and modifications. Currently the commercially available of blind stick are not that popular due to high cost and lack of accuracy. Previous projects on the same idea method proposed for using smart stick for blind visionless: obstacles estimation, artificial vision and real time assistance via GPS. Similar study for unsighted uses pulse echo technique for provides a warning sound when detecting the obstacles. This technique is used by the United States military for locating the submarines. They pulses are of ultrasound range from 21 KHz to 50 KHz when hit the hard surface they tend to generate echo, but the power requirement is high.
Recently, many techniques have been developed to enhance the mobility of blind people that rely on signal processing and sensor technology. These called electronic travel aid (ETA) devices help the blind to move freely in an environment regardless of its dynamic changes. From this paper we got idea about latest technology like Graphics Positioning System (GPS) & Graphics System Messaging (GSM). Which will help for tracking the location & used for making module of smart stick for visually impaired people and it gives us idea about text message sent from android mobile to blind person.
We got idea from this paper for Text message & Vibration when person detect obstacle with help of smart stick then blind person get aware to it by understanding Vibration alert if the obstacle on right the right vibrator will vibrate and vice versa. From this paper we got idea about GSM, GPS & of sensor like Ultrasonic sensor. Which one is more suitable & how they are perform & how they detect obstacle.
System design
Proposed System Design
The proposed design for smart stick distantly consists of
- The 8951 Micro controller Unit.
- The Obstacle Detection Unit.
- Bluetooth Module link with Mobile.
- Smart Phone.
Power on decide switch which starts execution of program on power supply at pin9 consists of 5V power supply along with 10micro farad capacitor and 10 kilo ohm resistor. We have dedicated port number 3Rx pin to Ultrasonic sensor which gives distance approximation of obstacle. Port1. 0 pin to Left Sensor sensor and Port1. 1 for Right Ultrasonic sensor for reception of trigger in case of obstacle detection.
Panic Button in conditions of distress is connected to Port1. 2. Port 2 is connected to Relay contacts via two transistors. When obstacle is detected current flows through current limiting resistors of base of two transistors which magnetize the relay coils which then activate the vibration motor. 2)Obstacle Detection Unit- Three ultrasonic sensors are used on the stick left, right and front.
The Ultrasonic transmitter transmits an ultrasonic wave, this wave travels in air and when it gets objected by any material it gets reflected back toward the sensor this reflected wave is observed by the Ultrasonic receiver module and hence the vary vibrator vibrates and alarm the blind person to change his/her path.
A simple Android application with simple GUI of two buttons Navigate and Panic buttons upper and lower respectively can be made by Basics for Android. The simple positioning of buttons helps in convenience.
Smart Phone-In second part of system is smart phone which is carried by blind person and which contain fast speed internet along with Android Application. This device plan an important role, this phone can carried by blind person when any accident happens or if the blind person lost his way by pressing the panic button the relative of blind will receive a message with his location.
Methodology and implementation
The power required for the Micro-controller is +5V and is generated by using 9V battery. The project hardware and Android Mobile Application will work together to achieve its task. First we scan the distance on hardware part using Ultrasonic sensors then we will check if it are too close then send pulse to vibrator to tell the user there is an obstacle ahead.
Three vibrators are placed so that when the blind wants to move forward, left or right and an obstacle is on the way the vibrator will vibrates and then he/she will change his path from that way. Blue-tooth module which along with GPS technology and an Android mobile application for blind, which will provide desired location and in panic situations will send SMS alert to registered mobile numbers. We will monitor the panic button if user press the panic button if an accident happens it will send a trigger command to the android mobile application through blue-tooth, using GSM connection in application it will take its current location and send to the desired number which will we want to receive our message.
Colour sensor has been used at the bottom of the stick to detect the presence of a red Colour and identify its exact coordinate across the full Colour spectrum, if he/she left the colour spectrum the vibrator will vibrate in such case.
Conclusion
This paper hence presents the system design and concept of a smart and easy to use Smart Stick for the visionless. For blinds and physically disable persons in our country no as such arrangements are there. Although they also have the same rights as ours and they also want to enjoy life as we do. Our aim to design a project for blinds is to facilitate them and help them out so they may need not help of any intruder and become self-reliant. Use of vibrators in this project is the way blind will be able to get know how and the way he will have to go. In case of any accidental happening blinds guardian will get to know immediately and he will be able to help him. With this system now a blind can go out of home alone too easily. The project can further be modified to increase ranges for obstacles and as the GPS technology continues to grow the accuracy will improve. The Advancement in Mobile technology will further help in developing better applications for continuous assessment of surroundings. Technology of Wi-Fi and can also be include along with IOT so that features like Whether and traffic prediction can help the blind to further evaluate better.
