IoT enabled intelligent stick for visually impaired people for obstacle recognition

Producción CientíficaThis paper presents the design, development, and testing of an IoT-enabled smart stick for visually impaired people to navigate the outside environment with the ability to detect and warn about obstacles. The proposed design employs ultrasonic sensors for obstacle detection, a water sensor for sensing the puddles and wet surfaces in the user’s path, and a high-definition video camera integrated with object recognition. Furthermore, the user is signaled about various hindrances and objects using voice feedback through earphones after accurately detecting and identifying objects. The proposed smart stick has two modes; one uses ultrasonic sensors for detection and feedback through vibration motors to inform about the direction of the obstacle, and the second mode is the detection and recognition of obstacles and providing voice feedback. The proposed system allows for switching between the two modes depending on the environment and personal preference. Moreover, the latitude/longitude values of the user are captured and uploaded to the IoT platform for effective tracking via global positioning system (GPS)/global system for mobile communication (GSM) modules, which enable the live location of the user/stick to be monitored on the IoT dashboard. A panic button is also provided for emergency assistance by generating a request signal in the form of an SMS containing a Google maps link generated with latitude and longitude coordinates and sent through an IoT-enabled environment. The smart stick has been designed to be lightweight, waterproof, size adjustable, and has long battery life. The overall design ensures energy efficiency, portability, stability, ease of access, and robust features

Internet of Things (IoT) enabled smart navigation aid for visually impaired

Blindness is a disorder in which a person's ocular vision is lost. Mobility and self-reliability have been a primary concern for visually disabled and blind people. Internet of Things (IoT) enabled Smart Navigation Aid, a smart Electronic Traveling Aid (ETA), is proposed in this paper. This smart guiding ETA improves the lives of blind people since it is enabled with IoT based sensing and is designed to help visually disabled/impaired people walk and navigate freely in both close and open areas. The proposed prototype provides highly powerful, accurate, quick responding, lightweight, low power consumption, and cost-effective solution that would enhance the lives of the visually impaired people. Within a 1m radius, ultrasonic sensors were used to locate the barrier and potholes. The location was shared with the cloud using GPS and an ESP8266 Wi-Fi module. The stick was also installed with an emergency button, which will call on the mobile when pressed. The stick can also detect wet surfaces with the help of a water sensor. The entire system was built on the Arduino UNO 3 platform. Thus, the proposed prototype is an excellent example of how IoT enabled sensing could aid in the day-to-day lives of the visually impaired people and allowing them the freedom to navigate independentl

Empowering the Visually Impaired: Arduino Mega Enhanced Accessibility Device

People with vision impairments find their life to be so difficult that they must rely on others even for the most basic tasks. When a user is in trouble, the developed system may identify obstacles and persons, play an audio message, and notify the carer. It delivers auditory output in order to help blind individuals recognise persons and text using Open CV and face recognition. Real-time image processing requirements are met by using a small amount of memory and extremely little processing time. The suggested system delivers a very competitive performance that matches the advantages of portability and ease of use, according to the performance comparison

Haptic Wearable System to Assist Visually-Impaired People in Obstacle Detection

One of the main difficulties encountered every day by visually-impaired people concerns moving and orienting themselves independently and safely in indoor and especially outdoor environments. Although several studies have been carried out to propose electronic aids to support orientation and mobility tasks, problems continue to exist. In this work, a wearable ultrasonic-based obstacle detector is proposed to give a further contribution to the field. The prototype is designed by paying particular attention to (1) the updating of the components and (2) the use by the blind users. It can be mounted on the user’s preferred model of eyeglasses and can be used with or without the traditional white cane

IOT Bracelets for Guiding Blind People in an Indoor Environment

Every day, we engage in a variety of activities such as shopping, reading, swimming, and so on. Many people in our community, however, are unable to participate in such activities, due to a variety of eye problems. Directing a blind person to the optimal position (the center of a spot where there is enough space in all directions such that a blind person avoids various obstacles) is a challenge. This paper proposes wireless bracelets that are able to guide a blind person to the optimal position. The proposed system employs ultrasonic sensors in order to detect various obstacles in an indoor environment. It also makes use of the Firebase database and NodeMCU WiFi module to enable real-time communication with a blind individual. Furthermore, the suggested system includes a novel fall-detection mechanism. The proposed Internet of Things (IoT) system is evaluated in an indoor environment. Experiment results showed that the proposed system could efficiently direct a blind person to the optimal position. In comparison to the current state of the art, the proposed system is simpler, less expensive, and more efficient in determining the optimal position to which a blind person must navigate

Automated Mobility and Orientation System for Blind Person

This paper is intended to provide a model for object detection and real time assistance via Global Positioning System (GPS).This paper aims at the development of an Electronic Travelling Aid (ETA) kit to help the blind people to find obstacle free path. This ETA is fixed to the wheel chair. When the object is detected near to the blind it alerts them with the help of voice play talkto which speakers are connected . Ultrasonic sensors are used to evaluate distance of the objects around the blind person and to guide the user towards the secure and available path. The hardware of entire system contains ARM7 (LPC2148),ultrasonic sensors and voice input kit, speakers, Global positioning system (GPS) module and Global System for Mobile (GSM) modul

Voice Warning to Identify Distance to Obstacles on Smart Cane for Blind People

Blind people are often hampered in their mobility, while currently available assistive technology includes manual sticks and electronic mobility devices. Currently, the development of smart canes is still being carried out in many studies. Smart cane works by detecting the distance of the cane to obstacles in front of you. From detecting this distance, the response the user gets is generally in the form of vibrations and sounds from the buzzer. The sound provided by the buzzer cannot differentiate the distance between obstacles. Therefore, this study proposes the existence of additional sound playback responses to differentiate far, middle, and near obstacles. Apart from that, the design of the prototype refers to the shape of a flashlight. The smart cane is designed using an Arduini UNO microcontroller with a rechargeable battery power supply with three response components, namely two ISD 1820 modules connected to a speaker to detect long distances (201-300 cm) with a "Hati-hati" sound and medium distances (101-200 cm) with an "Awas" sound, as well as a buzzer and piezoelectric component in the form of a "beep" sound and vibration for close distances (1-100 cm) to obstacles. The result is that both the ultrasonic sensor and response components work according to design. Apart from that, the rechargeable battery supply feature and the implementation of the prototype design make it easier for users to store and use for daily activities

Smart Cane: Assistive Cane for Visually-impaired People

This paper reports on a study that helps visually-impaired people to walk more confidently. The study hypothesizes that a smart cane that alerts visually-impaired people over obstacles in front could help them in walking with less accident. The aim of the paper is to address the development work of a cane that could communicate with the users through voice alert and vibration, which is named Smart Cane. T he development work involves coding and physical installation. A series of tests have been carried out on the smart cane and the results are discussed. This study found that the Smart Cane functions well as intended, in alerting users about the obstacles in frontComment: 6 page

Image recognition-based architecture to enhance inclusive mobility of visually impaired people in smart and urban environments

The demographic growth that we have witnessed in recent years, which is expected to increase in the years to come, raises emerging challenges worldwide regarding urban mobility, both in transport and pedestrian movement. The sustainable development of cities is also intrinsically linked to urban planning and mobility strategies. The tasks of navigation and orientation in cities are something that we resort to today with great frequency, especially in unknown cities and places. Current navigation solutions refer to the precision aspect as a big challenge, especially between buildings in city centers. In this paper, we focus on the segment of visually impaired people and how they can obtain information about where they are when, for some reason, they have lost their orientation. Of course, the challenges are different and much more challenging in this situation and with this population segment. GPS, a technique widely used for navigation in outdoor environments, does not have the precision we need or the most beneficial type of content because the information that a visually impaired person needs when lost is not the name of the street or the coordinates but a reference point. Therefore, this paper includes the proposal of a conceptual architecture for outdoor positioning of visually impaired people using the Landmark Positioning approach.5311-8814-F0ED | Sara Maria da Cruz Maia de Oliveira PaivaN/