A Smart Infrared Microcontroller-Based Blind Guidance System

Abstract

Blindness is a state of lacking the visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors. The partial blindness represents the lack of integration in the growth of the optic nerve or visual centre of the eye, and total blindness is the full absence of the visual light perception. In this work, a simple, cheap, friendly user, smart blind guidance system is designed and implemented to improve the mobility of both blind and visually impaired people in a specific area. The proposed work includes a wearable equipment consists of head hat and mini hand stick to help the blind person to navigate alone safely and to avoid any obstacles that may be encountered, whether fixed or mobile, to prevent any possible accident. The main component of this system is the infrared sensor which is used to scan a predetermined area around blind by emitting-reflecting waves. The reflected signals received from the barrier objects are used as inputs to PIC microcontroller. The microcontroller is then used to determine the direction and distance of the objects around the blind. It also controls the peripheral components that alert the user about obstacle's shape, material, and direction. The implemented system is cheap, fast, and easy to use and an innovative affordable solution to blind and visually impaired people in third world countries.

Peer Review #2 of "Technology-assisted white cane: evaluation and future directions (v0.1)"

“…The desired functionality is offered by exploiting technologies in a multitude of ways including, e.g., tags for localization, Smartphones for obstacle detection and navigation. Several solutions offer additional functionalities, e.g., (Al-Fahoum et al 2013) recognize the material of obstacles such as wood, plastic, steel, and glass. (Ye et al 2014) recognize the obstacles along with estimating cane pose using Visual Range Odometry (VRO) method.…”

A low-cost indoor and outdoor terrestrial autonomous navigation model

“…for the design of a s shown. Depth camera, Lowed in the literature navigation, applied e of land vehicles Vehicles) [7], [8], n order to improve people [13]- [16]. ferent technologies, System) [7], IR ency Identification) nd combinations of GPS-INS (Inertial sonic [14], RFIDetc.…”

“…INTRODUCTION HERE are a lot of systems propose that face the issue of autonomous n for several purposes, such as guidance [1]- [6], UAVs (Unmanned Aerial V robotic applications [9]- [12], and also in the quality of life of visually impaired The methods proposed are based on diff such as GPS (Global Positioning (Infrared) [9], [13], RFID (Radio Freque [5], [10], [16], Ultrasonic [12], [16], an various technologies, including G Navigation System) [1]- [4], IR-Ultras Ultrasonic [6], [11], Ultrasonic-INS [8], However, these technologies present For example, the accuracy of GPS is operating indoors due to limited satell moreover, today's GPS based navigation not function well at cities with ta Ultrasonic cannot provide high angular the wide beam angle (which can be ab even wider) [8]; RFID systems are ge and attempting to read several tags at a signal collision and ultimately to furthermore, RFID readers cannot be location [18]. Some limitations can b systems based on sensor fusion (e.g., IRUltrasonic, etc.…”

Integrating Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing to Guide Blind Movements

“…As technologies improve, smart walking sticks have been explored by embedding sensors on the walking sticks. Other attempts have also been tried with the use of electronic travel aids [1], electronic orientation aids (EOAs) [13] and position locator devices (PLDs) [10]. Despite all the efforts undertaken to solve the movement of the blind, it remains challenging and requires more research endeavors [2].…”