State of the art review on walking support system for visually impaired people

The technology for terrain detection and walking support system for blind people has rapidly been improved the last couple of decades but to assist visually impaired people may have started long ago. Currently, a variety of portable or wearable navigation system is available in the market to help the blind for navigating their way in his local or remote area. The focused category in this work can be subgroups as electronic travel aids (ETAs), electronic orientation aids (EOAs) and position locator devices (PLDs). However, we will focus mainly on electronic travel aids (ETAs). This paper presents a comparative survey among the various portable or wearable walking support systems as well as informative description (a subcategory of ETAs or early stages of ETAs) with its working principal advantages and disadvantages so that the researchers can easily get the current stage of assisting blind technology along with the requirement for optimising the design of walking support system for its users

Design and data analysis for a belt-for-blind for visual impaired people

This research designs a new walking support system for the blind people in order to navigate without any assistance from others or using any guide cane. With the help of this device, a user can move independently and able to walk freely almost like a normal person. In this research, a belt for blind wearable around the waist is equipped with four ultrasonic sensors and one sharp infrared sensor. A mathematical model has been developed based on the specifications of the ultrasonic sensors to identify optimum orientation of the sensors for detecting stairs and holes. These sensors are connected to a microcontroller along with a laptop so that we can get sufficient data for analysing terrain on the walkway of the blind. Based on the analyses of the acquired data, we have developed an algorithm capable of classifying various types of obstacles. The developed belt for blind device is superior in terms of less weight less, able to detect stair and hole, low cost, less power consumption, adjustable, less training and availability of actuation systems. It was tested and implemented successfully to address all those issues

Mobile assistive technologies for the visually impaired

There are around 285 million visually impaired people worldwide, and around 370,000 people are registered as blind or partially sighted in the UK. Ongoing advances in information technology (IT) are increasing the scope for IT-based mobile assistive technologies to facilitate the independence, safety, and improved quality of life of the visually impaired. Research is being directed at making mobile phones and other handheld devices accessible via our haptic (touch) and audio sensory channels. We review research and innovation within the field of mobile assistive technology for the visually impaired and, in so doing, highlight the need for successful collaboration between clinical expertise, computer science, and domain users to realize fully the potential benefits of such technologies. We initially reflect on research that has been conducted to make mobile phones more accessible to people with vision loss. We then discuss innovative assistive applications designed for the visually impaired that are either delivered via mainstream devices and can be used while in motion (e.g., mobile phones) or are embedded within an environment that may be in motion (e.g., public transport) or within which the user may be in motion (e.g., smart homes)

IO Vision – an integrated system to support the visually impaired

Security questions are one of the techniques used to recover passwords. The main limitation of security questions is that users find strong answers difficult to remember. This leads users to trade-off security for the convenience of an improved memorability. Previous research found that increased fun and enjoyment can lead to an enhanced memorability, which provides a better learning experience. Hence, we empirically investigate whether a serious game has the potential of improving the memorability of strong answers to security questions. For our serious game, we adopted the popular “4 Pics 1 word” mobile game because of its use of pictures and cues, which psychology research found to be important to help with memorability. Our findings indicate that the proposed serious game could potentially improve the memorability of answers to security questions. This potential improvement in memorability, could eventually help reduce the trade-off between usability and security in fall-back authentication

Empowering Visually Impaired through the Assistance of SAHAYAK – A Walking Aid for the Blind

To help blind people overcoming difficulty in their movement in the physical environment and even in their home, a study on an engineering concept is very much necessary. So, our research comes out with an aid that will help blind people in their surroundings. It can detect any obstacle that will block the path of the blind. And The motion of the user can be sensed by the bot. Thus, Blind people can comfortably receive the help of our bot in assisting their movement from one place to another. This paper describes about an automated vehicle which can be controlled by an ultrasonic sensor to avoid obstacles when they move in their environment. Our automated robotic system is made up of an ultrasonic sensor and Arduino micro controller controls our automated bot. It is located in the front part of the bot. The ultrasonic sensor retrieves the data from the environment through the sensors attached to the bot. When any obstacle is detected then immediately that path is changed and an obstacle free path is chosen. The bot wheel is moved based on the data received by the controller from the sensor. The direction and wheel movement of the bot and will be decided from the ultrasonic sensor sensing and also using wheel encoder. It is used for detection and avoidance of interference. The controller is also programmed to be used with an android application

The Smart Guide Cane for Assisting the Visually Challenged for Indoor

This paper introduces the concept of the Smart Cane that will use to guide the visually challenged person while walking. Cane is nothing but a hollow stick that is commonly used by the blind one usually. Here the cane is improved by using the sensors for obstacle detection, moisture and fire detection in their environment and to guide them towards their destination. Here we developed the hardware of the Smart Cane by using Atmega328 microcontroller and the outputs are display on the LCD

Assistive Systems for the Visually Impaired Based on Image Processing

In this chapter, we proposed three assistive systems for visually impaired individuals based on image processing: Kinect cane system, Kinect goggle system, and light checking system. The Kinect cane system can detect obstacles of various sizes and also recognize objects such as seats. A visually impaired user is notified of the results of detection and recognition by means of vibration feedback. The Kinect goggle system is another type of wearable system, and can make user’s hands free. The light checking system is implemented as an application for a smartphone, and can tell a visually impaired user the ON/OFF states of room lights and elevator button lights. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed systems are effective in helping visually impaired individuals in everyday environments

Design and Development of MY 2nd EYE for Visually Impaired Person

This paper discussed on design and development of electronic device by using warning system for visually impaired person usage which is called ‘MY 2 nd EYE’. This electronic device is designed to support and help the visually impaired person around this world to have their own confident in order to travel from one place to another place. This project is about developing of warning system by using a vibration motor as a warning device via microcontroller that received input from distance measurement sensor when detecting obstacle. The vibration motor is a best solution to warn the blind person because it uses touch sense of human when the system is run. In this system, there are four pieces of vibration motor are mounted to the gloves at different locations. Each location will have its own function that show different direction such as front, left, right and down. In this project, the effectiveness of the system gives command the direction of obstacle existence is very important and have been confirmed through simulation and experiment

Detection of immovable objects on visually impaired people walking aids

One consequence of a visually impaired (blind) person is a lack of ability in the activities related to the orientation and mobility. Blind person uses a stick as a tool to know the objects that surround him/her.The objective of this research is to develop a tool for blind person which is able to recognize what object in front of him/her when he/she is walking. An attached camera will obtain an image of an object which is then processed using template matching method to identify and trace the image of the object. After getting the image of the object, furthermore calculate and compare it with the data training. The output is produced in the form of sound that in accordance with the object. The result of this research is that the best slope and distance for the template matching method to properly detect silent objects is 90 degrees and 2 meters