Islamabad: Two years ago when Faizan Khan woke up in hospital following a car crash, he rubbed his eyes hard but still couldn’t see a thing. He initially thought it was an effect of the trauma from which he would recover with time but he had in fact been blinded. Today, the horrors of his car accident are long gone but he is still learning to live in a world he cannot see anymore.
“I had great difficulty at first as I simply wasn’t prepared for it” says Faizan. “One of the most detrimental impacts of vision loss is that you’re not able to move around like before. The fact that you are dependent on someone for movement is the worst feeling.”
Faizan and millions of visually impaired people like him now have a chance to make sense of their surroundings with the help of Sonic Eye, a device that acts as a navigational prop through the medium of sound.The innovative device has been developed by 23-year-old Hifza Jamal, a student from Peshawar in the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — signifying how young Pakistani women in the field of technology are transforming society.
Talking to Gulf News, Hifza explained that Sonic Eye is basically a stick that is attached to a navigation system. “This navigation helps to identify the objects in the path. These sensors alert the visually impaired with a loud sound when an object is nearby,” she said.
“The device releases frequencies in the shape of a cone, which when they come in contact with any object in a certain range, activate the buzzer,” said Hifza detailing her invention.The device can indicate obstacles ahead and makes it easier for visually impaired people to find their way around. The device could be extremely useful for not only the blind but also the partially blind or people with complex eye diseases.
During her research for the project, Hifza spoke to several visually impaired persons as well as eye therapists to understand the problems faced by people with vision loss.“What struck me most was that vision loss can have a debilitating impact on the mobility and independence of people. They are stuck in one place and become dependent on other people.”
Determined to instil hope in the physically challenged population of Pakistan, Hifza decided to resume work on her university project. “Sonic Eye was basically my university final year project made with the help of my colleagues under the supervision of my professors,” said Hifza, who completed her Bachelor of Computer Science degree from the Institute of Management Sciences Peshawar.“I am perhaps the first one to launch this technological device in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” she reckons.
Hifza is currently busy working to develop a mobile app that will be able to offer a navigational aid for the blind without even having to use the stick. The app has image processing, face recognition and object detection features, which will help partially sighted persons perceive their surroundings with the use of a mobile camera. “The app is basically aimed at partially blind people,” Hifza explained. “The app will also recognise currency by speaking the denomination, enabling visually impaired people to easily identify and count bills.”
Hifza is also the co-founder of Sympathizers, an organisation working to provide better education, health and everyday facilities to special people in Peshawar.Armed with the Sonic Eye and the app she is working on, Hifza aims to bring about a phenomenal change in the lives of people with visual impairments. “This technology can allow sightless people to live an independent life,” she said. “I wish to make this device available free of cost not only in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but also all across Pakistan with the help of the government,” she said.
As for Faizan, he is thrilled to learn about Sonic Eye. “I can’t wait to try this amazing piece of technology as I will be able to move around on my own without depending on my family members,” he exclaimed.
[FONT=&] IJSRD - International Journal for Scientific Research & Development| Vol. 4, Issue [/FONT]02, 2016 [FONT=&]| ISSN (online): 2321-0613 All rights reserved by www.ijsrd.com
2059 Sonic Eye with Walking Stick for Blind People Thombare Nikita S 1 Waikar Rohini D 2 Kambale Shubhangi V 3 1,2,3 Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering 1,2,3 Shivaji University, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India Abstract —
The aim of our project is to redefining vision tocreate and enhance opportunities for independence of blind people. The main objective of this project is to provideartificial guidance to the visually impaired people with thehelp of Arduino UNO board, 3 ultrasonic sensor placed onstick to detect obstacle on right, left and front side andearphone to inform blind person about obstacle in the formof voice message .GPS system is used for exact locationtracking of blind person and GSM module to communicatewith authorized person or care taker of that blind person toknow about exact location of that person using google map. Key words:
Arduino Uno board, Ultrasonic sensor, Voice playback unit (APR9600), GPS receiver, GSM module, VBwindowI.
I NTRODUCTION Vision is the most important part of human physiology as83% of information human being gets from the environmentis via light. Blindness is a state of lacking the visual perception due to physiological or One has to ask forguidance in order to reach to the destination. But what if the person is visually impaired!! Person has to completelydepend on other people to reach destination. Generally weobserve that white cane is the best friend of visuallyimpaired person. But many times this cane is not useful. Inan unfamiliar surrounding visually impaired person mightget confused. So this restricts their mobility. This makesthem dependent on others. Regardless of the tool used, thefactor that most determines a person's mobility is the use ofessential personal skills.The traditional and oldest mobilityaids for persons with visual impairments are the walkingcane (also called white cane or stick) and guide dogs. Themost important drawbacks of these aids are necessary skillsand training phase, range of motion and very littleinformation is conveyed. With the rapid advances of moderntechnology, both in hardware and software front has brought potential to provide intelligent navigation capabilities.Recently there has been a lot of Electronic Travel Aids(ETA) designed and devised to help the blind navigateindependently and safely. Also high-end technologicalsolutions have been introduced recently to help blind persons navigate independently. Many blind guidancesystems uses ultrasound because of its immunity to theenvironmental noise. Another reason why ultrasonic is popular is that the technology is relatively inexpensive, andalso ultrasound emitters and detectors are small enough to be carried without the need for complex circuit.II.
P ROPOSED SYSTEM Fig. 1: Transmission SectionFig. 2: Receiver SectionIII.
W ORKING In this proposed system, a blind person has to carry walkingstick with him. The three ultrasonic sensors are placed onthe stick such a way that right, left and front. When obstaclewill come in front of the blind person then ultrasonic sensorsense the presence of object after that arduino will processedfurther and this system will give command to the blind inthe form of voice message through earphone. Voicemessages are already stored in voice playback unit(APR9600).Voice messages like front obstacle is detected,right obstacle is detected and left obstacle is detected.Also this stick having a GPS receiver in thecircuitry, which is used to track the exact location of the blind. Co-ordinates of location will send through GSMmodule from transmitter to the receiver, receiver is placed atthe home of the blind and his care taker or guardians canknow about exact location of him and location is viewed bygoogle map in VB window.
Sonic Eye with Walking Stick for Blind People(IJSRD/Vol. 4/Issue 02/2016/575)
Power Supply Overall system works on 9v external battery. B.
Arduino Uno Board The Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on theATmega328. It has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHzceramic resonator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSPheader, and a reset button. It contains everything needed tosupport the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computerwith a USB cable or power it with an AC-to-DC adapter or battery to get started. C.
Ultrasonic Sensor In this system, 3 ultrasonic sensors are used to detect theobstacle in the path of blind person. It works at 4 frequncy40khz and range of distance is from 4cm to 4m. D.
Voice Playback Unit (APR9600) Voice playback unit is used to record and play thecommands for blind people. E.
GPS Receiver GPS receiver is used to track the exact location of blind person. F.
GSM Module SIM 900 GSM module,one GSM module is used at thetransmitter and one at the receiver. It is used to sendmessage from transmitter to that of the receiver section ofsystem. G.
MAX 232 In order to provide the communication between GPSreceiver and microcontroller MAX 232 is used.This is a standard serial binary data interconnectionunit between data terminal and data communication unit.VI.
R ESULT For demo purpose we used here lcd display to display theresult when obstacle is detected this lcd display will displaythe distance of obstacle and on which side obstacle is present. As well as it will display latitude and longitudevalues.At the receiver section we have used VISUALBASICS 6.0 as GUI, to display number of message sender,latitude and longitude values along with google map todisplay exact location of that person.Fig. 4:Fig. 5:Fig. 6:Fig. 7:
Sonic Eye with Walking Stick for Blind People(IJSRD/Vol. 4/Issue 02/2016/575)
C ONCLUSION A sonic eye with walking stick uses Arduino Uno board asmain controller. A simple, cheap and easy to handleelectronic system provide guidance to the blind. It is able tosense left, right and front obstacle present in the path of the blind person. It will track exact location of the blind andsend the location information to the care taker of him.A CKNOWLEDGMENT It gives us a profound sense of gratitude and regards to those personalities without whose incessant efforts, this projectwould remain still a fiction. This work is the result of thevaluable insights and encouragement of these personalities.We are highly indebted to our project guide Prof. Mrs. S. B.Karole, whose remarks and suggestions, prior to and duringthe development of the final project, has escorted us inremoving the in detailed ambiguities and inconsistencies.Her constant attention to the project details and accessing itsdevelopment, bestowed a proper shape and way to the finalcompletion of project.We feel gratitude to record our cordial thanks to theH.O.D. of EXTC Department, Prof.(Dr.) S.A. Patil who has been a constant source of inspiration for us by extending allthe required sources at appropriate time. We also extend oursincere thanks to all the teaching and non-teaching staff fortheir valuable support and assistant, which they extended asand when required.We would like to thank our principal, Prof. (Dr.) P.V. Kadole and the college for providing us the platform toexcel in life.Finally we would like to acknowledge each otherfor working together in a synchronous manner with zeal andinterest, all the time.R EFERENCES [1]
Pooja Sharma, Mrs. Shimi S. L. and Dr. S .Chatterji, “Design of microcontroller based Virtual Eye for theBlind”. [2]
[h=1]Sonar sticks use ultrasound to guide blind people[/h]
By Meera Senthilingam, for CNN updated 7:25 AM EDT, Tue July 15, 2014 | Filed under: Innovations
The "SmartCane" has been developed in India as a low-cost smart technology to provide independent mobility for blind people.
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STORY HIGHLIGHTS
New low-cost smart technology to provide independent mobility for the blind
The SmartCane uses ultrasound to detect obstacles in the path of users
It can detect obstacles above knee height, which are hard to detect with standard canes
Vital Signs is a monthly program bringing viewers health stories from around the world. (CNN) -- "On the streets the sidewalks are cluttered with street vendors, animals, streetlights and other obstacles which make them uncomfortable even for sighted people," explains Professor Meenakshi Balakrishnan, a computer engineer at the Indian Institute of Technology, in Delhi. Balakrishnan heads the team behind the "SmartCane[SUP]TM[/SUP]," a new device using ultrasound to guide the visually impaired through the busy streets of India by building upon the widely used white cane. "A white cane is an excellent device, providing a lot of information to users," he says. "But it is poor at detecting obstacles that are above waist height and do not have a touch-point on the ground, such as a tree branches sticking out into your path." On the streets the sidewalks are cluttered with street vendors, animals, streetlights and other obstacles Professor M. Balakrishnan, Indian Institute of Technology
The team at SmartCane™ took on this challenge by copying the skills of animals such as bats, which emit sonar calls into their surroundings and use the echoes bouncing back from nearby objects to divert around them. The smart technology version instead sends out ultrasound waves via a device attached to a standard white cane; it detects them on their return, and uses vibrations to inform users of any obstacles in their way. The real benefit comes from the ultrasound scanning a 45 degree span above the knee, providing information a regular cane simply can't provide. As people move the cane from left to right when they walk, vibrations detected on one side mean they should move towards the other. Read: Carpenter cuts off his fingers, makes himself new ones
Living with blindness
The 'bionic eye'
Seeing through sound Differing patterns and intensities of vibration tell users the distance of the object obstructing their path, as far as three meters away. Smart and low cost The SmartCane™ is not the first of its kind, with similar technologies existing in countries including South Korea, Taiwan and the United Kingdom, where the "Ultracane" has been available since 2011. "Ultracane provides narrow-beam accurate navigation that allows a skilled user to proceed at normal walking speed. It helps you to 'navigate your way' rather than simply 'avoid hitting things.'" explains Dr Paul Clarke, director of Sound Foresight Technology Limited whose Ultracane deviceprovides information on the direction, as well as distance, of an obstacle when aiding the mobility of its thousands of users worldwide. But a retail price of over $1,000 places it firmly out of reach of many in developing countries. "The aim of the Ultracane is to offer blind and visually impaired communities a device that gives them independent personal mobility outside the home," he says. The company has recently unveiled an "Ultrabike," a device that fits onto bikes and uses vibration to provide greater freedom on supervised cycle tracks. "Under controlled and supervised conditions the Ultrabike gives blind and visually impaired people an opportunity to experience -- or re-experience -- riding a bike," says Clarke.
The goal for Balakrishnan and his team, however, had been a low-cost technology to provide independence to the 15 million people estimated to be blind in India, where blindness is a national health priority. "We are targeting low-cost economies, starting with India," states Balakrishnan. "In high-income countries, footpaths are wider and fairly safe with few obstacles, but in India there are many obstructions meaning people who are visually impaired are reluctant to leave their homes." There are 5 million people estimated to be blind who are of productive age Professor M. Balakrishnan, Indian Institute of Technology
Retailing at 3,000 Indian rupees, which is just $50, the SmartCane™ recently completed trials with 150 users from across the country and is now available to buy. The challenge remaining is to find and reach the millions of visually impaired Indians, many of whom reside in the poorest and most remote communities. "There are 5 million people estimated to be blind who are of productive age and need independent mobility to work or go to school and be part of the mainstream," concludes Balakrishnan. "We are working through schools, hospitals and local NGOs, who are the groups with access to the people we need to reach." With a goal of at least 50 partners, including government institutions and local NGOs, the aim is to bring independence to all the visually impaired people not only in India, but eventually beyond the country to benefit other low-income populations. Source: http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/20/tech/innovation/sonar-sticks-use-ultrasound-blind/index.html
