2017 International Conference on Nascent Technologies in the Engineering Field (ICNTE-2017)
Blind Aid Stick:Hurdle Recognition,Simulated
Perception,Android Integrated Voice Based
Cooperation via GPS Along With Panic Alert System.
Akshay Salil Arora(Author)
Electronics and Telecommunication. Ramrao Adik
Institute of Technology
Navi Mumbai, India
arora.akshay.13et1122@gmail.com
Abstract—Evolution of technology has always been
endeavored with making daily life simple. With a fast paced life
everybody today is harnessing the benefits of technology except
some parts of the society .One of them is the visually impaired
who have to rely on others for travelling and other activities. This
paper aims at providing one such theoretical model which
incorporates the latest technologies to provide efficient and smart
electronic aid to the blind. We have used IR sensors along with
ultrasonic range finder circuit for hurdle detection. Bluetooth
module which along with GPS technology and an Android
application for blind, will provide voice assistance to desired
location and in panic situations will send SMS alert to registered
mobile numbers The basic objective of the system is to provide a
convenient and easy navigation aid for unsighted which helps in
artificial vision by providing information about the
environmental scenario of static and dynamic objects around
them.
Keywords—Ultrasonic senesor;IR sensor formatting; GPS
module ; Bluetooth module
I. INTRODUCTION
Vision is one of the most important senses of as most of the
information humans gets from the environment is via sight.
WHO reported that in august 2014, about 285 million people
suffer from lack of vision .It is estimated worldwide: 39 million
are blind and 246 million have less vision. Around 90% of the
visually impaired live in low income conditions. 82% of people
living with blindness are around 50 and above. Globally,
uncorrected refractive errors are the main cause of moderate
and severe visual impairment; cataract is the leading cause of
blindness in middle- and low-income countries. The number of
people visually impaired from infectious diseases has reduced
in the last 20 years according to global estimates work. 80% of
the visual impairments can be prevented or cured.The basic
problem which every blind person faces is with regard to
commutation and navigation in daily life. The most basic tools
for them are walking cane and guide dogs and also on kindness
978-1-5090-2794-1/17/$31.00 ©2017 IEEE
Vishakha Gaikwad (Author)
Electronics and Telecommunication. Ramrao Adik
Institute of Technology
Navi Mumbai, India
Vishaka.tayade@gmail.com
of fellow commuters. The most commonly used tool is still the
blind stick .It suffers from drawbacks like lots of practice,
range of motion, less reliability in terms of dynamic hurdles
and also range detection. We will try to modify this cane with
electronic components and sensors. The ever growing
technology and with recent developments can help in artificial
and accurate navigation. Our model uses GPS technology
along with Bluetooth module which then will initiate an
android application which will connect to Google maps for
navigation. In addition we have used ultrasonic and IR sensors
which help in obstacle detection and on hurdle recognition will
ring the speaker for different durations to indicate different
distances. We wish at presenting an inexpensive and light
weight and accurate model which helps in effortless navigation
for the blind. Distress mechanism will send locations of
longitude and latitude to preregistered mobile numbers in
situations of panic
II. Literature Survey
Blind Aid Stick has been a popular project with constant
enhancements and modifications. Currently the commercially
available of blind stick are not that popular due to high cost and
lack of accuracy. Previous projects on the same idea - Shruit
and Prof.A.Sakhare (2011) [1] method proposed for using
smart stick for blind visionless: obstacles estimation, artificial
vision and real time assistance via GPS. This system works
with GPS, artificial vision system, obstacle detection and audio
circuit. This project is fitted with a camera on the persons head;
the camera will use an algorithm to detect obstacles. The model
also includes ultra-sonic sensors to detect the obstacles. GPS
system helps in reaching required destination. International
Journal of Latest Trends in Engineering and Technology
(IJLTET) Vol. 3 Issue 3 January 2014 108 ISSN: 2278-621X
Once an obstacle is encountered or we reach the destination
voice circuit will activate providing certain type of voice. Sub
systems are connected with microcontroller which executes
and coordinates the operations. The system is low cost. The
 2017 International Conference on Nascent Technologies in the Engineering Field (ICNTE-2017)

accuracy is high. But, the design complexity is high. [2]Similar B. Working Model Design
study for unsighted uses pulse echo technique for provides a
warning sound when detecting the obstacles. This technique is
used by the United States military for locating the submarines.
They pulses are of ultrasound range from 21 KHz to 50 KHz
when hit the hard surface they tend to generate echo, But the
power requirement is high. [3]. another study done by (Sung,
Young, Kim and IN, 2001) .Keeping in mind the ease of use
and simple design with low cost we have proposed our model.
We have incorporate android application for ease of user. The
buzzer duration and stick vibrations, keep the blind person
updated at all times. The Google maps based sound navigation
is very accurate and reliable, but cannot be used in places like
closed buildings for navigation, but obstacle will be detected.
We can also save locations which are frequent like office, bus
stops, home. Hence, our model is cheap, easy to use and has a
simple design with a scope of incorporate new technologies.
.

III. SYSTEM DESIGN

A. Proposed System Design

The proposed design for smart stick distantly consists of
1) The 8951 Micro controller Unit.
2) The Obstacle Detection Unit.
3) Bluetooth Module link with Mobile. (GPS and android)
4) Voice IC interface unit.
Figure 2
Left IR Ultrasonic Right IR
sensor sensor sensor IV. DESIGN COMPONENTS
1) Microcontroller AT89S51-Key reason of selection of
Bluetooth, Micro controller Motor this component is 4KB Flash memory, which is 1000 times
GPS, 8951 reprogrammable .It is a 40 pin IC where 5V power supply is
Android
app given to pin 40, ground to pin 20, and oscillator of11.0592MHz
between pin 18 and 19 along with two 22 Pico- farad
ICULN2803 Buzzer
Battery capacitors .Power on decide switch which starts execution of
Figure 1
program on power supply at pin9 consists of 5V power supply
Figure1- Block Diagram. along with 10micro farad capacitor and 10 kilo ohm resistor.
We have dedicated port number 3Rx pin to Ultrasonic range
detector which gives distance approximation of obstacle.
Port1.0 pin to Left IR sensor and Port1.1 for Right IR sensor
for reception of trigger in case of obstacle detection .Panic
Button in conditions of distress is connected to Port1.2.Port 0 is
used to connect for 16x2 LCD display (for debugging and to
demonstrate values).Port 2 is connected to Relay contacts via
two transistors .When obstacle is detected current flows
through current limiting resistors of base of two transistors
which magnetize the relay coils which then activate the
vibration motor and buzzer. Software used for microcontroller
programming is BASCOM 8051 with embedded C language.
2) The Obstacle detection unit- It consists of Ultrasonic range
detector and Two IR sensors. Ultrasonic sensor uses 40 KHz
signals to detect obstacle up to 180cm and on detection based
on speed of sound waves, and then will send Binary serial
signal on Rx Pin of Microcontroller. Based on different
distances the buzzer will ring for different durations. The IR
sensors consist of IR LED and photo detector circuit. Which
 2017 International Conference on Nascent Technologies in the Engineering Field (ICNTE-2017)

use Infrared beam to sense surrounding objects and on

reception send perceived data to Microcontroller .The different
durations of vibration helps the vision less to understand Figure 3- proposed android application system.
whether the obstacle is left or right direction and hence is more Frequently visited locations like Home, Office, Railway
reliable and efficient. The range of left and right sensors can be Station and other can be pre stored and hence can be used in
increased but for proposing model we prefer to keep system Surroundings where GPS signals are not available.
simple so that it is easily implementable and conceptually easy
to understand. 4) Voice IC interference unit – It consist of ICULN2803
which is powered by 12V lead –acid battery. It is connected to
Hurdle Recognition vibration motor and buzzer. Based on signals from port 2 the
Direction Buzzer/Vib relay circuit coil magnetizes and buzzer starts ringing.
Sensor Used Distance Range
ration
Front
Ultrasonic Range
100-75 cm 200ms(B)
5) Power supply circuit – 12V lead acid battery provides
Detector power to relay contacts along with buzzer and vibration motor.
Ultrasonic Range Current limiting diode along with Voltage regulator IC7805
Front 75-50 cm 500ms(B)
Detector
Ultrasonic Range
with filter capacitors 100 micro farad and 1 micro farad help in
Front
Detector
50-25cm 1s(B) the stable 5V output which powers the micro controller along
Ultrasonic Range continuou with various components. The battery is rechargeable and as
Front Less than 25cm
Detector s(B) the stick is used only during navigation time, by efficient usage
Left Left IR sensor Up to 5cm 250ms(V) the stick can function for a day.

Right Right IR sensor Up to 5cm 500ms(V)

Table 1
3) Bluetooth Module to Mobile Link –HC05 model is used.
A simple Android application with simple GUI of two buttons
Navigate and Panic buttons upper and lower respectively can
be made by Basics for Android. The simple positioning of
buttons helps in convenience. In case of pressing of navigation
button the android application links to Goggle Maps on mobile
so voice based navigation is used to guide towards the
destination from source location. The destination can be told on
mobile and the shortest way to reach the destination is
provided. In case of panic situations supposing the blind person
has some difficulty on clicking the panic button, the Bluetooth
Module will trigger the mobile to send a SMS to registered
mobile numbers with exact GPS location of the person.
GPS
V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE SCOPE
This paper hence presents the system design and concept
of a smart and easy to use Blind Aid Stick for the visionless
.The key features are the simple design, efficient yet easy to
use and modify architecture and system design. Hence it can
provide a low cost device for millions of blind people in the
entire world. The proposed system combines various existing
easily technologies and real time system sensors that help in
monitoring the position of user and also help in effortless
navigation. The different duration buzzer further improves the
efficiency and reduces complication. The project can further
be modified to increase ranges for obstacles and as the GPS
technology continues to grow the accuracy will improve. The
Advancement in Mobile technology will further help in
developing better applications for continuous assessment of
surroundings. Technology of Wi-Fi and can also be include
along with IOT so that features like Whether and traffic
prediction can help the blind to further evaluate better.

GUI REFERENCES
[1] Calder, David J,Curtin, “An obstacle signaling sytem for the
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SMS
Bluetoot ALERT Proceedings of the 5 th IEEE International Confrence on 30 June 2011 .
h
module [2] Shruti Dambgare , Prof.A.Sakhare,”Smart Stick for Blind:Obstacle
Dection,Artificial Vision and Real- Time assistance via GPS” Confrence
(NCICT)2011, Proceedings 2nd National Confrence on Information and
PANIC
Communication Technology 2011.
[3] Rohith seth “Smart White Cane- an elegant and economic walking aid”.
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