ULTRSONIC BLIND WALKING STICK FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED

Shraddha Bunnan, Gagan Pratap Singh, S.P. Tondare

Abstract: The man kind has been suffering with many diseases and abnormalities. Blindness is one of the disabilities which is very common and difficult to treat. The main motive of this paper is to help the blind people with a good and easy to use blind walking stick that uses a microcontroller to detect obstacles in front of him with many additional features which are quite cost effective. The stick will be meant for the rehabilitation of the blind people. The product is based on the distance measurement property of the ultrasonic sensors. It will measure the distance and velocity of the obstacle in the way of the person and will alarm the person about any obstacle (moving/stationary). The stick will allow detection of obstacles on the ground, holes and pits, uneven surfaces, steps, and other typical obstacles in the path of the person. Since the device is incorporated with wireless module it will be very handy and will be much easier to use as compared to the similar products available in the market. The white cane or stick is mostly preferred by the blind people for walking. But the limitation to the white cane is that the information obtained by the blind user is only by touching the objects by the tip of the cane, which is not completely reliable. Through this proposed paper we offer to give a solution which overcomes the limitations of the ordinary white cane. The ultrasonic blind walking stick is fully automated, comfortable to use and cheap. In other words, it is quite economic over the conventional method.

Keywords: Ultrasonic, Blind Walking Stick, Blindness,

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2016.0505065