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Chapter One

This document provides an introduction to a project aimed at creating a wearable guidance system for blind individuals. It discusses statistics on visual impairment globally. Common mobility devices for the blind like canes are described as having limitations. The document reviews similar past projects that attempted to assist the blind, noting limitations like high cost, small detection areas, or irritating vibration feedback. The aim of the current project is to create a system that warns blind users of obstacles from 1.5-2 meters away with sound and includes an emergency button to provide their location. The project is outlined over 5 chapters covering components, experiments, results, and future work.

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ابو علي الحيدري
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44 views

Chapter One

This document provides an introduction to a project aimed at creating a wearable guidance system for blind individuals. It discusses statistics on visual impairment globally. Common mobility devices for the blind like canes are described as having limitations. The document reviews similar past projects that attempted to assist the blind, noting limitations like high cost, small detection areas, or irritating vibration feedback. The aim of the current project is to create a system that warns blind users of obstacles from 1.5-2 meters away with sound and includes an emergency button to provide their location. The project is outlined over 5 chapters covering components, experiments, results, and future work.

Uploaded by

ابو علي الحيدري
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CHAPTER ONE

Introduction

1.1. Introduction:
On an approximation 285 million people are visually impaired across the
globe, among which 39 million are blind and 246 have low vision according to WHO
statistics of 2011. About 90% of the world's visually impaired live in low-income
settings whereas 82% of people living with blindness are aged 50 and above. [1]
Blind as a special group in society, the needs of society to give them more care and
attention, so that they are better able to live independently. However, how safe
walking blind life is the biggest problem. Traditional navigation device mostly blind
cane, blind by tapping the ground or walking around the object to determine the
direction, the structure is simple, single function, easy to use, but the secondary effect
is not very obvious, in fact, will encounter many problems when using the blind such
as poor road conditions, uneven, hanging in front of obstacles, ordinary cane cannot be
proven accurate, such a serious impact on the safety of blind travelers. [2]
Blind people are usually dependent on assistance from others. The assistance can be
from human beings, dogs or some special electronic devices. There are already many
existing devices which help a blind person in walking. The most common is the simple
walking stick or cane. The blind man uses it to detect the obstacles by sweeping the
cane back and forth but unfortunately sometimes the blind man gets aware about the
obstacle too late. With the recent advances in technology normal walking cane has
been modified to a blind stick with an ultrasonic sensor attached to it. It has several
limitations. Therefore, the solution that has been portrayed in this project is cost
effective, reliable, robust and portable device which would help a blind person to walk
on the streets almost like any other pedestrian. [1]

1.2. Literature Review:


In a rapidly flourishing country like our innumerable number of attempts has been
made for the welfare of especially able people of our society. One of such attempts is
the project “Project Prakash", an empathetic attempt towards the blind children to help
them gain knowledge of a set of obstacles around them by using their brains. Sheth et
al worked on how a blind people can be able to detect any type of pits, potholes and

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several ups and downs by using a smart white cane where they have used ultrasonic
sensors. In this device a multilingual system for audio feedback cannot be used
because it can record only for 680 seconds. The idea that can be seen in has an
ultrasonic sensor, a water sensor and a pit sensor. It also consists of a GPS system but
here the user needs to give the present location as the input itself. The method of doing
so has not been mentioned herein. In it can be observed that it consists of a video
camera on the frame itself as well as a computer processing unit precise enough to get
fit in the pocket and the software that provides images of objects close by to
transparent displays on the eyepieces. The major limitation of this device is that it is
not at all suitable for completely blind people. It is recommended only for people with
low vision or night blindness. There is another new attempt of assisting the blind
people which is named as H.A.L.O or Haptic Assisted Location of Obstacles. It
consists of rangefinders that would take input from the ultrasonic sensors and output
feedback to pulse vibration motors which are placed on the blind man's head. When
the person gets closer to the object, the intensity and frequency of the vibration are
increased. The main limitation is the use of vibration motor. The vibrations as an
output feedback are far way irritating for any blind person. [1]

1.3. Similar projects:

1.3.1. Smart cane:

This project 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 project is to
address the development work of a cane that could communicate with the users
through voice alert and vibration,
Advantages:
 Includes f a face recognition to help blind people to recognize friends.
 Panic button to alert immediately blind people if there is obstacle near of
obstacle near of them.
Disadvantages:
 you must carry it all the time.
 It can see through limited angles only.

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1.3.2. Tap tap see application:

Tap tap See is a mobile camera application designed specifically for the blind and
visually impaired iOS users.AI image recognition API. The app utilizes the device’s
camera and Voice Over functions to photograph objects and identify them out loud for
the user.
Advantages:
 Mobile application.
 Can detect any number of objects.
Disadvantages:
 Time of processing is high.
 It requires to capture many images to detect all objects.
 Works on captured images only not in real time.

1.3.3. Smart shoes for visually impaired people


The shoes sync with a user's phone, and an app that piggybacks on Google Maps
allows the shoes to keep track of where they're going. Once you have input your
destination and chosen a route, you can tuck your phone away and run or walk along
with the left or right shoe buzzing.
Advantages:
 Easy to use and carry.
 Work through all angles.
 The main focus is on software, so it is cheaper than other similar projects.
 Determine each object in the room not just say there is obstacle.
Disadvantages:
 Focusing on hardware will make the project budget very expensive.
 Focusing on software will acquire to use another device such as laptop or
mobile to perform software processing on it.[3]

1.4. Aim of Project:


The aim of project is to create a wearable guidance system for the blind, in which the
blind person is warned when there is an obstacle at a distance of 1.5 to 2 meters, as it
gives a sound alarm, and there is also a button pressed by the blind person that

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provides another person whose number is determined by the program to give the
location of the blind person to reach it.

1.5. Project Outline:


This project is organized into five chapters including introduction chapter.
Chapter two: provide a components of project.
Chapter three: Provides experimental parts of project.
Chapter four: Gives the results of the work.
Chapter five: Conclusion and future works.

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