BILINGUAL SMART MEDICO STICK FOR BLIND

Dr.B.VASUMATHI R.ABARNA K.C.MOHAN PRADEEP A.KULANTHAISAMY

Associate Professor Student Student Student
Vk.ece@ebet.edu.in abiranganathan95@gmail.com kcmpsmiyow@gmail.com
knskulanthaisamy@gmail.com
Erode Builder Educational Trusts Group of Institutions

Abstract With the scope of electronics increasing day by day, visual impairment, 39 billion of which are blind and 246 with low
the need for utilizing these advanced technologies to make vision.
human lives simpler is becoming more and more necessary. The In everyday life they undergo problem of navigation to reach
demand for using these technologies to make lives easier for from one place to another safely and timely. They often depend
disabled people is also increasing. on external assistance which can be provided by humans, trained
This project putforths the ideas for visually impaired dogs, or special electronic devices as support systems for
people in order to help blinds live a better life. The main decision making. The most important drawbacks of these aids are
component of this project is a device, on to which the sensors necessary skills and training phase, range of motion and very
are mounted to supervise the blind person .Live tracking is little information conveyed. With the rapid advances of modern
implemented with the help of an Android phone and with the technology, both in hardware and software front have brought
GPS system. In this four different modules are considered: potential to provide intelligent navigation capabilities. This
GSM is used to send alert messages to relatives of the person system presents a concept to provide a smart electronic aid for
when the pulse rate or temperature decreases. GPS is used to blind people, both in public and private space. The system is
identify the area where the person is present. Obstacle detection intended to provide overall measures artificial vision and object
is used to identify the objects which may be placed in the either detection, real time assistance via global positioning system
side and in the front of the person. The sensors used are (GPS). In this system embedded system plays a major role. In
ultrasonic sensors which are used to identify the objects. Pit this system we are using the Ultrasonic sensor, Pit sensor, Water
sensor is used to find humps and dumps in front of sensor, GPS receiver, GSM module, Voice synthesizer,
blind.Temperature and Heartbeat sensor are used to monitor the microcontroller and speaker. Smart walking stick is specially
persons body condition. In addition to this we have bilingual designed to detect obstacles which may help the blind to navigate
voice playback module to help people to choose the language care-free. The audio messages will keep the user alert and
they want. considerably reduce accidents. A voice enabled automatic
Keywords: Obstacle detection, Ultrasonic sensor, switching is also incorporated to help them in private space as
Pit sensor, Microcontroller, Heartbeat sensor, Temperature well. This blind guidance system use ultrasound because of its
sensor, Voice module, Vibrator immunity to the environmental noise. Another reason why
ultrasonic is popular is that the technology is relatively
I. INTRODUCTION inexpensive, and are small enough to be carried without the need
Vision is the most important part of human physiology as for complex circuit.
83% of information human being gets from the environment is
via sight. The count of visually impaired people rises every 2. HARDWARE COMPONENTS
year. The 2011 statistics by the World Health Organization PIC16F877A
(WHO) estimates that there are 285 billion people in world with Various microcontrollers offer different kinds of memories
EEPROM, EPROM, FLASH, etc., are some of the memories of satellites. Older models may be 8 or even 5 channels with more
which FLASH is the most recently developed. Technology that modern receivers capable of communicating with 14-20.
is used in PIC 16F877A is flash technology, so that data is Heartbeat Sensor
retained even when the power is switched off. Easy Heart beat sensor is designed to give the digital output of the
programming and erasing are other features of PIC 16F877A. heart beat when the finger is placed on it. When the heart beat
The PIC start plus development system from microchip detector is working, the beat LED flashes in unison with each
technology provides the product development engineer with a heartbeat. This digital output can be connected to the
highly flexible low cost microcontroller design tool set for all microcontroller directly to measure the Bits per Minute (BPM)
microchip PIC micro devices. The PIC start plus development rate. It works on the principle of light modulation by blood flow
system includes the PIC start plus programmer. The PIC start through finger at each pulse.
plus programmer gives the product developer ability to program Ultrasonic sensor
user software in to any of the supported microcontrollers. The basic concept of ultrasonic sensor is to determine the
POWER SUPPLY distance of the object.In this project the ultrasonic sensor is used
This power supply block consists of a step-down to measure the distance between the obstacles and the blind. The
transformer, a bridge rectifier, a capacitor and a voltage sensors enable to warn the blind when facing any dangerous
regulator. Single-phase active current power supply from the circumstances.
mains is step down to a lower voltage range which is again HC-SR04 Sensor
rectified to direct current by using a bridge rectifier, this The ultrasonic sensor used in this project is HC-SR04. It is
rectified direct current is filtered and regulated to the whole used to determine distance of an object. It offers excellent non-
circuit operating range with a capacitor and voltage regulator IC contact range detection with high accuracy and stable readings in
respectively an easy-to-use package. From 2cm to 400 cm or 1 to 13 feet. It
GPS operation is not affected by sunlight or black material like Sharp
The GPS concept is based on time and the known position rangefinders are (although acoustically soft materials like cloth
of specialized satellites. The satellites carry very stable atomic can be difficult to detect).
clocks that are synchronized to each other and to ground clocks. APR9600 Module
Any drift from true time maintained on the ground is corrected The APR9600 device offers true single-chip voice recording,
daily. Likewise, the satellite locations are known with great non-volatile storage, and playback capability for 40 to 60
precision. GPS receivers have clocks as well however; it cannot seconds. The device supports both random and sequential access
synchronize with true time, and are less stable. of multiple messages .Sample rates are user selectable, allowing
GPS satellites continuously transmit the current time and designers to customize their design for unique quality and storage
position. A GPS receiver monitors multiple satellites and solves time needs. Integrated output amplifier, microphone amplifier,
equations to determine the exact position of the receiver and its and AGC circuits greatly simplify system design. The device is
deviation from true time. At a minimum, four satellite must be ideal for use in portable voice recorders, toys, and many other
in view of the receiver for it to compute four unknown consumer and industrial applications.
quantities. APLUS integrated achieves these high levels of storage
GPS use satellite data to calculate an accurate position on capability by using its proprietary analog /multilevel storage
the earth. This calculation can relate the users position to technology implemented in an advanced Flash non-volatile
almost any map projection within mills-seconds. All GPS memory process, where each memory cell can store 256 voltage
working a similar manner but, often looks very different and levels. This technology enables the APR9600 device to reproduce
have different software. voice signals in their natural form. It eliminates the need for
The most significant difference between GPS receivers is encoding and compression, which often introduce distortion.
the number of satellites can simultaneously communicate. Most Vibrator
receivers are described as 12 channels can communicate with 12
 The vibrator is used in the stick to alert the blind people reflection, In this case the light is infrared. The skin is used as a
about obstacle in front of them. We use DC vibrator motor. reflective surface for infrared light. The density of blood in the
Vibration motor is a compact size coreless DC motor used to skin will effect on the IR reflectivity. The pumping action of heart
informs the users of receiving the signal by vibrating, no sound. causes the blood density rises and falls. So that we can calculate
Vibration motors are widely used in a variety of applications the heart rate based on the rise and fall of intensity of infrared
including cell phones, handsets, pagers, and so on. The main that reflected by skin.
features of vibration motor is the magnet coreless DC motor are
permanent, which means it will always have its magnetic GSM
properties (unlike an electromagnet, which only behaves like a
GSM stands for Global System for Mobile Communication.
magnet when an electric current runs through it); another main
The GSM modem used for this system is SIM 900. The SIM 900
feature is the size of the motor itself is small, and thus light
is a complete Quad-band GSM/GPRS solution in a SMT module
weight. Moreover, the noise and the power consumption that the
which can be embedded in customer applications. Featuring an
motor produce while using are low. Based on those features, the
industry-standard interface, the SIM 900 delivers GSM/GPRS
performance of the motor is highly reliable. The vibration
850/900/1800/1900 MHz performance in a Voice, SMS, Data and
motors are configured in two basic varieties: coin (or flat) and
Fax in a small form factor and with low power consumption.
cylinder (or bar). There are some components in both of their
With any tiny configuration of 24 mm * 24 mm * 3 mm, SIM 900
internal constructions.
can fit almost all the space requirements in your M2M
Temperature sensor
application, especially for slim and compact demand of design.
The temperature sensor is used to find the body
temperature of the person. There are various types of
The modem is designed with 3V3 and 5V TTL interfacing
temperature sensors they are Thermocouples, Resistance
circuitry which allows user to directly interface with 5V
Temperature Detectors (RTDs), Thermistors, Infrared, and
microcontrollers (PIC, AVR, Arduino, 8051, etc.) as well as 3V3
Semiconductor Sensor. Here we are using
microcontroller (ARM, ARM Cortex XX, etc.). The baud rate can
Thermistor as temperature sensor.
be configurable from 9600-115200 bps through AT stack to
Thermistor
enable user to connect with internet through GPRS feature. It is
suitable for SMS as well as DATA transfer application in mobile
Thermistor is special type of resistor, whose resistance
phone to mobile phone interface.
varies more significantly with temperature than in standard
resistors. Generally, the resistance increases with
the 3. BLOCK DIAGRAM
temperature for most of the metals but the thermistors respond
negatively i.e. the resistance of the thermistors decrease with the
increase in temperature. This is the main principle behind
thermistor. As the resistance of thermistors depends on the
temperature, they can be connected in the electrical circuit to
measure the temperature of the body.
A thermistor is made from a semiconductor material. It is
shaped into a disc, a rod or a bead. Bead thermistors may be
only a few millimeters in diameter. Some bead thermistors have
the bead enclosed in a glass capsule.
IR LED and IR Phototransistor

This circuit made from an infrared phototransistor and

infrared LED. This transducer works with the principle of light
 Some pins are multiplexed with an alternate function(s).
These functions depend on which peripheral features are on the
device.
5. CONCLUSIOISN
The smart walking stick, if constructed with at most accuracy,
will help the blind people to move from one place to
another without others help. This could also be considered a
crude way of giving the blind a sense of vision. This stick
reduces the dependency of visually impaired people on other
family members, friends and guide dogs while walking
around. The proposed combination of various working units
makes a real-time system that monitors position of the user
and provides dual feedback making navigation more safe and
secure. The smart stick detects objects or obstacles in
front of users and feeds warning back, in the form of voice
messages rather than vibration. Also the incorporation of
automatic room equipment switching in the stick will be useful
while they are indoor. The advantage of the system lies
in the fact that it can prove to be a low cost solution to millions of
blind person worldwide.
4. PIC MICROCONTROLLER 16F77A
REFERENCE
Various microcontrollers offer different kinds of
[1]Project Prakash, http://web.mit.edu/bcs/sinha/prakash.html
memories EEPROM, EPROM, FLASH, etc., are some of the
[2]Mohammad Hazzaz Mahmud, Smart walking stick - an
memories of which FLASH is the most recently developed.
electronic approach to assist visually disabled persons
The technology that is used in PIC 16F77A is flash
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