Smart Walk for the Visually Impaired

Abstract

The thesis we are reporting here is part of our effort to develop a navigation system for the blind. Our long-term goal is to create a portable, self-contained system that will allow visually impaired individuals to travel through familiar and unfamiliar environments without the assistance of guides. This system aims at making a visually impaired person independent and swifter. Generally, the visually impaired people use a stick to avoid collisions and to locate the obstacles that come their way. But due to certain limitations, these sticks prove to be less efficient and frequent injuries are caused to the blind. To reduce the chances of any such injuries to the blind, this stick can be installed with some electronics equipments that work together to help the blind by making her/his journey easier, more comfortable and less prone to injuries. The system, as it exists now, consists of the following functional components: (1) a module for determining the obstacles in the traveler’s path, (2) a module for determining the edges and downfalls in the traveler’s path, (3) a module for fall detection of the stick of the blind person. The traveler is given sound alerts by a buzzer whenever she/he encounters an obstacle. Also to help her/him find the fallen stick, a melody is produced by the buzzer. On finding the fallen stick, the melody can be stopped by pressing a button on the device.