CHAPTER ONE

ABSTRACT:
The main aim of this project is to expand the electronic travel aid for the
blind and visually impaired pedestrians by emerging into the ultrasonic
technology. The project represents an innovative project design and
implementation of an Ultrasonic Navigation system in order to provide
fully automatic obstacle avoidance with audible notification for blind
pedestrians. This blind guidance system is safe, reliable and cost-
effective.

INTRODUCTION
Blindness is a condition of lacking the visual perception due to
physiological or neurological factors partially or fully. The main concept
of the paper is to provide an electronic aid as guidance to overcome the
lacking of their visualization power by proposing a simple, efficient,
configurable electronic guidance system for blind and visually impaired
pedestrians. Ultrasonic Sensor is the proposed electronic aid which
senses the obstacles in its path by continuously transmitting the
ultrasonic waves. When an obstacle appears in its vicinity then the
ultrasonic waves gets reflected to the system immediately. And then
ultrasonic receiver senses these ultrasonic waves. This method supports
the microcontroller to obtain the information from ultrasonic waves and
then it alerts the blind pedestrians through voice message. The advantage
of our proposed system is its voice based announcement for easy
navigation which can assist a blind pedestrian to pass through a busy
road. Moreover, this system is an auditory guidance system for the
visually impaired pedestrians using ultrasonic-to-audio signal
transformation.

OVERVIEW OF THE PROJECT

In this project, the system is designed in such a way that it gathers data
about the environment via ultrasonic sensors and extracts the visual
information from that data. This visual information is then transformed
into an audio signal immediately and the blind pedestrian can recognize
the environmental information through binaural sound generated by the
system [2]. The whole operation of the project can be described by using
block diagram which is a graphical method for explaining the concept of
the system without the presence of the individual components within the
project. Figure 1 represents the basic block diagram of the whole system
of project.
1.2 Problem Statement
There are many blind persons that use the white stick to help their daily
movement. The stick helps them to detect obstructions around them and
to avoidthem from danger.
The function of the common walking stick usually used by the blind is
limited. So, there is need to develop a new walking stick that can detect
any
obstacles before the user hit it with the end of the stick.

1.3 Objectives of the study

The objective of this project is to develop a smart walking stick that can
sense obstacles around the visually impaired person. The walking stick
will be able
to sense different distances between the user and the obstacles for up to
120 cm long.
In addition, the objective of this project is also to help the movement of
blind person
in their daily activities. Nevertheless, this project also targets to develop
a low cost,
sturdy and robust walking stick.`
This project will fulfil the following objectives;
1. To design an assistive technology for visually impaired people in
which can detect obstacles and provides alternative ways.
2. To alarm the user through speech (earphone/headphone) and vibration
to determine the obstacles direction sources.
3. To build low cost blind navigation using Arduino with 1sheeld to
connect to smartphone.
SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
1. To enhance the mobility of blind people.
2. protecting blind people from possible hazard
3. less costly product will be affordable for many people.

SCOPE
Speech alert delivered to smartphone using 1sheeld text-to-speech
feature.
Vibration alert triggered in 2 mini vibration motor.
4 ultrasonic sensor are set up on the cane gripper to detect obstacle
from four directions( up, front ,left ,right)
Controller used is the Arduino Uno.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Ultrasonic:
Arduino:
Vibration:
Sensor
Visualization:
Blind:
Obstruction:
 CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Traditionally white cane is the most popular, simplest tool for detecting
obstacles due to its low cost, portability. It enables user to effectively
scan the area in front and detect obstacles on the ground like holes,
steps, walls, uneven surfaces, downstairs etc .but it can only be used to
detect obstacles up to knee-level. Its detection range is limited up to 1-2
feet only. Certain obstacles (e.g. protruding window panes, raised
platforms, a moving vehicle, horizontal bars) cannot be detected till they
are dangerously close to the person. Even dog guides are very capable to
guide these persons but they are unable to detect potentially hazardous
obstacles at head level. Several solutions have been proposed in the
recent years to increase the mobility and safety of visually impaired
persons. A system Roshni determines the users position in the
building, navigation via audio messages by pressing keys on the mobile
unit. It uses sonar technology to identify the position of user by
mounting ultrasonic modules on ceiling at regular intervals. This system
is portable, easy to operate and is not affected by environmental
changes. But this system is limited only for indoor navigation because it
requires detailed interior map of the building. [4] Another real-time
technology developed to alert visually impaired user by the presence of
static / dynamic obstacles in a few meters surrounding, which works
without depending on any Smartphone, uses camera for background
motion detection. This system is robust to complex camera and
background motion and does not required any prior knowledge about the
obstacle size, shape or position. This camera based image processing
system can be a better option but it requires lot processing power and
hence system becomes bulky, costly and it must be transportable. [5]
Navigation system generally comprised either an indoor or outdoor
positioning system or both, for detecting the position of consumer. Most
of the outdoor navigation systems employ GPS for positioning.
BLOCK DIAGRAM