Making Movement Easy for the Visually Impaired

As per the survey conducted on visually disabled people it was discovered that the white cane is an integral part of their daily movements on the road. But this cane does not have the power to detect incoming objects and obstacles, and so it is unable to protect them from severe collisions and accidents. It is also not able to indicate forth coming turns on the roads, therefore our idea of the modified version of this stick will prove to be helpful for the visually disabled.

SURVEY REPORT FOR EASY-WAY ON 40 PEOPLE WITHIN DELHI UNIVERSITY CAMPUS AGE GROUPOCCUPATIONNUMBER OF PEOPLE A STUDENTS (U.G. /P.G.) 26 RESEARCH SCHOLARS 6 B PROFESSORS 5 LAWYERS 1 CLERKS IN SBI 1 EMPLOYEE (NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR THE VISUALLY HANDICAPPED) 1

Do you have a mobile phone with screen reader? Do you have any navigation device?

Does your Blind stick detect incoming obstacles and measure its distance ? How much would you be willing to pay for a stick that can find obstacles and help in navigation?

Intelligent Stick:  Navigation System  Distance Measurement Sensors  Bluetooth Bluetooth Headset:  For two-way communication between stick and the user.

Navigation Stick (can Rotate up to Bluetooth (to communicate with Headset) Navigation System Battery Ultrasonic sensors MAIN SWITCH UPPER SELECT BUTTON OK BUTTON LOWER SELECT BUTTON BLUETOOTH HEADSET

 Internet Connection Module  GPS module  ARM processor and RAM  Symbian operating system (S60 Platform).  Loadstone GPS (application Software)

MAIN SWITCH ON DESTINATION NOT FOUND Main Unit SOURCE FOUND CHECKING SPEECH INPUT SOURCE NOT FOUND Main Unit CHECKING INPUT DESTINATION DESTINATION FOUND Main Unit RE-CONFIRM TO TRAVEL CONFIRM SELECTED OPTIONS

 Used to detect incoming objects.  Will rotate in range of 45 o, continuously every second.  A second ultrasonic sensor will detect potholes, stairs and other obstacles.

 Using tilt sensor or gyroscope, we can calculate the angle of stick to the ground.  Using the value returned by the tilt sensor, we adjust the angle of the Ultrasonic sensor, fitted on a motor.

 It can rotate up to 360 o, using stepper motor.  It fetches the angular direction of the nearest landmark from main unit and rotates towards that direction.

 Rechargeable Lithium ion battery.  Light weight  Cost effective and durable.

 Cost Effective  Easy to use  Reusability, since most of the components are already present in the market.  Price- Rs approx.

 It’s accuracy may be affected in rainy season.

By: Gourav Sharma Sudhanshu Kumar Singh Department of Computer Science, University of Delhi Edited By: Jasmeet Singh