Journals Proceedings

Abstract

Visually impaired people find difficulties detecting obstacles in front of them, during walking in the street, which makes it dangerous. The smart stick comes as a proposed solution to enable them to identify the world around. In this paper we propose a solution, represented in a smart stick with infrared sensor to detect stair-cases and pair of ultrasonic sensor to detect any other obstacles in front of the user, within a range of four meters. Moreover, another sensor is placed at the bottom of the stick for the sake of avoiding puddles. Speech warning messages and the vibration motor are activated when any obstacle is detected. This proposed system uses the microcontroller 18F46K80 embedded system, vibration motor and ISD1932 flash memory. The stick is capable of detecting all obstacles in the range 4 meter during 39 ms and gives a suitable respect message empowering blind to move twice his normal speed because she/he feels safe. The smart stick is of low cost, fast response, low power consumption, light weight and ability to fold.