The Smart Stick for Visual Impaired People

Abstract

There is a big number of persons with visual impairment in our society and the world at large. The Comprehensive Community Based Rehabilitation in Tanzania is among the hospitals in the country which deals with this group of people. It conducted a research in the year 2019 to identify the population of visual impaired people and found that, in Tanzania alone there are 848,530 people who are visual impaired and 32,930 who are totally blind. Approximately 39 Million people across the globe are blind according to the World Health Organization report released in 2015. Blind and visual impaired people usually rely on others or white stick technology for walking around and doing their daily activities. This group of people moves around with difficulties thus, hampering not only their wellbeing but also their contribution to the economy of the society in which they live. Looking at the seriousness of the problem in our society, the researcher was motivated to develop a smart white stick as an improvement to the conventional white stick. The smart features were achieved by adding to the stick at specific positions ultrasonic sensors that provides an alert
to the visual impaired person about the surroundings, through activating the buzzer which gives a beep sound. The piece is cost effective and light-weight system designed with microcontroller that processes signal and alerts the visually impaired person over any obstacle being approached. Sensors used include ultrasonic sensors; moisture sensor and
obstacle detection sensor. The sensors receive process and send signals to the alarm system which alert the user for quick action. The system was controlled using Arduino, a platform for C++ language. It was tested for workability trough laboratory experiment in which the stick was moved at different distance intervals from the obstacle. The results reveals that
within the distance 0 to 2.1 meters, the stick beeps (give alarm), and from 2.2 meters and beyond no sound was heard. The stick was also put on trial with 5 blind persons who conceded the improved stick, being trouble free.