Visual Impairment Aid Using Haptic and Sound Feedback

Abstract

In this paper, implementation of a wearable glove is presented that can be used to assist the visually impaired people. It can help the blind person to avoid hurdles using haptic and voice feedback. It does not only navigate the path to the blind person but also informs about his/her location to others through a message on the mobile device. It can help his/her caretaker (in case he is not near to the blind person) to locate him using the received coordinates from the communication module of glove having Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) technology. This wearable glove is physically realized by interfacing different sensors and communication modules with Arduino UNO. Different modes of obstacles detection and alerts are provided using various sensors and actuators to assist visually impaired person.

Existing System

Haptic Perception of Objects in a visual and Depth Guided Navigation.

Proposed System

In this paper, implementation of a wearable device for visually impaired persons is presented. Proposed system is designed to scan the hurdles in a specific path and to notify the user with the aid of haptic and voice feedback. It does not only notify about the hurdles but also informs the location of the user to the caretaker using GSM technology. Accuracy of this wearable system can be increased by adding more distance sensor placed on different angles or using advance sensor like lidar. Size and weight of the glove can be reduced by using smaller version of arduino. The proposed wearable glove consists of three main parts: Input, communication and output. As the system is turned on, microcontroller starts to send signals to the specific ultrasonic sensor depending on selection switch for long or short distance measurement. Then selected Ultrasonic sensor sends out the sound pulses and wait for the echoes to reflect back from hurdles. These echoes are fed in the form of PWM pulses to the microcontroller and then controller calculates the distance of the hurdle/object by measuring width of these pulses. If the hurdle is present and lies within specified range, the motor and buzzer starts to vibrate and beep for indicating the presence of hurdle to the blind person. The proposed system can help the blind person in four ways: 1) A buzzer system alerts the blind person if he/she gets near to the hurdle. 2) A haptic feedback system helps the blind person by means of vibration. Its vibration starts to increase when the person reaches near a specified distance. 3) A voice feedback system tells the blind person about the distance of the hurdle in front of him/her. 4) A GSM and GPS system helps to inform the position of the blind person to the specified emergency number.

Architecture

Block Diagram of Proposed Wearable Glove for Visual Impairment Aid