Development of a Sensor Assistive Walking Stick for the Visually Impaired
Abstract
Visually impaired persons mostly depend on white canes for their maneuvering. In the last decade, numerous researches have been conducted to assist the visually impaired by developing various sensor assistive systems. However, there are several scopes of further development. This paper focuses on the development of a simple and smart walking stick with the integration of ultrasonic and camera sensors. In addition, there is a novel feedback system combining audio feedback to the ear through headphones and vibration feedback to the hand holding the stick handle. Several experimental setups are designed to validate the implementation and effectiveness of the sensors and feedback system. The percentage of accuracy in sonar sensor detection is confirmed up to 98% and the safe workspace is determined as 30x60 sq. cm. The camera sensor is used for object detection and face learning. The control system is designed to set the intensity of the vibration feedback based on the distance of the obstacle and generate an audio message about the obstacle to provide feedback to the user. The performance of the feedback system is validated by demonstrating the developed stick to the real users.
Keywords: Ultrasonic sensor, camera sensor, object detection, vibration feedback, image processing
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