CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

RELATED STUDIES

Blind people guidance system
Ljupko imunovi, Velimir Aneli, Ivan Pavlinui
This paper describes a guidance system for blind and partially sighted people with the aim of coping in
the known and unknown internal and external spaces without the assistance of human guides. This work
represents a significant step forward in the application of innovative technological solutions to increase
independence and improve the quality of life for people with disabilities. This paper describes the
technical and functional architecture of the system for orientation and guidance of a blind person using
available modern technology. The described system consists of a digital sensor for determining the
location by dead reckoning technique, infrared marks in space and handheld device that provides voice
guidance instructions.

An Indoor Navigation System for the Visually Impaired
Luis A. Guerrero, Francisco Vasquez, and Sergio F. Ochoa
Navigation in indoor environments is highly challenging for the severely visually impaired, particularly in
spaces visited for the first time. Several solutions have been proposed to deal with this challenge.
Although some of them have shown to be useful in real scenarios, they involve an important
deployment effort or use artifacts that are not natural for blind users. This paper presents an indoor
navigation system that was designed taking into consideration usability as the quality requirement to be
maximized. This solution enables one to identify the position of a person and calculates the velocity and
direction of his movements. Using this information, the system determines the users trajectory, locates
possible obstacles in that route, and offers navigation information to the user. The solution has been
evaluated using two experimental scenarios. Although the results are still not enough to provide strong
conclusions, they indicate that the system is suitable to guide visually impaired people through an
unknown built environment.

Smart stick for Blind: Obstacle Detection, Artificial vision and Real-time assistance via GPS
Ms. Shruti Dambhare, Prof. A.Sakhare
The paper presents a theoretical model and a system concept to provide a smart electronic aid for blind
people. The system is intended to provide overall measures Artificial vision and object detection ,real-
time assistance via global positioning system(GPS).The system consist of proximity sensors, ultrasonic
sensors , gps module, stereo cameras and dual feedback system- auditory as well as vibratory circuit.
The aim of the overall system is to provide a low cost and efficient navigation aid for blind which gives a
sense of artificial vision by providing information about the environmental scenario of static and
dynamic objects around them.

Wireless sensor network system helping navigation of the visually impaired
Kamal Beydoun, Violeta Felea, Herv Guyennet
Navigation aids for the pedestrians are considered new research challenges. The visually impaired are
particularly concerned, because of their need to detect and avoid obstacles, as well as to orient
themselves in unknown environments. In this paper, we discuss some existing projects in this domain
and we propose a novel aid system formed of wireless sensors, meant to help navigation of the visually
impaired, which addresses both orientation and obstacle negotiation. The proposed system is GPS-free
and does not need external assistance in navigation.

An Integrated Indoor/Outdoor Blind Navigation System and Service
Lisa Ran, Sumi Helal and Steve Moore
There are many navigation systems for visually impaired people but few can provide dynamic
interactions and adaptability to changes. None of these systems work seamlessly both indoors and
outdoors. Drishti uses a precise position measurement system, a wireless connection, a wearable
computer, and a vocal communication interface to guide blind users and help them travel in familiar and
unfamiliar environments independently and safely. Outdoors, it uses DGPS as its location system to keep
the user as close as possible to the central line of sidewalks of campus and downtown areas; it provides
the user with an optimal route by means of its dynamic routing and rerouting ability. The user can
switch the system from an outdoor to an indoor environment with a simple vocal command. An OEM
ultrasound positioning system is used to provide precise indoor location measurements. Experiments
show an in-door accuracy of 22 cm. The user can get vocal prompts to avoid possible obstacles and step-
by-step walking guidance to move about in an indoor environment. This paper describes the Drishti
system and focuses on the indoor navigation design and lessons learned in integrating the indoor with
the outdoor system.

Smart cane: Instrumentation of a quad cane with audio-feedback monitoring system for partial
weight-bearing support
Mercado, J.
Proper cane handling is one of the main goals of cane therapy in the field of physical rehabilitation.
Toward that goal, a system has been developed to monitor the weight-bearing performance of the
patient and provide an audio feedback to affect a patient's weight application onto the cane. The smart
cane is designed to read the force measurement, to compare the read-out force and to generate an
alert message if the force applied by the patient is incorrect. The system includes a graphical user
interface, which allows real-time graphing of the force measurements and keeps a database for offline
comparative data analysis by the therapist. It employs a wireless connection between the
microcontroller and the computer using Bluetooth technology, which increases mobility of the patient.
This will help the patient to achieve optimum rehabilitation that can lead to an improved balance in
walking and eventually cane independence.

Obstacles Recognition System for the Blind People Using RFID
Nassih, M.
This paper outlines an obstacle recognition system for the blind people using the Radio-frequency
identification (RFID). In order to walk without being accompanied, people with visual impairment use
touching clues such as canes. The main concern of blind people is to be able to detect any type of
obstacle within their surroundings. For that, several techniques have been developed such as
Differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) or Radio-frequency identification (RFID). Previous
experiences of different researches have proven the limits of the DGPS in localizing the position of
people and obstacles in different situations, while the RFID is being developed to better meet the needs
of the visually impaired people. This paper aims on developing a blind recognition system through canes
using RFID and covers a brief insight of relevant work about the RFID system. The review of RFID system
introduces the technical features of this utility and presents the concept of research being developed in
smart canes for blind people. The information such as the costs of the components of the suggested
RFID-based system is provided.

RELATED LITERATURE

RSSI Techniques this can be effective at finding distances base on signal strength but is also
affected by the direction problem.

RFID seems to provide the most cost effective and simplest way to determine
direction using the technique that the team has developed. The
programming using this technique would also be less complex.

RFID Tag a passive device that is drawing power from the reader and sends out
electromagnetic waves that induce a current in the tags antenna.

RFID Reader use to sense or read the RFID tag in a specific range.

Electromagnetic Waves this is used in transmitting energy through a vacuum or using no medium
and is caused by the oscillation of electric and magnetic waves.

Microcontroller a device used to input codes and data that the device can use to get
directions in getting an output.

WIFI a method of gaining connection using frequency from a router to a
specific device.

Arduino a microcontroller used to input variety of codes in a system to mplement
applications of objects.

C++ a programming language that can be used in Arduino.

Matlab another programming language that provides multi-purpose numerical
calculations.

PLC a programming language used in electromechanical devices.