Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Inventive Communication and Computational Technologies (ICICCT 2018)

IEEE Xplore Compliant - Part Number: CFP18BAC-ART; ISBN:978-1-5386-1974-2

Smart Stick for the Blind and Visually Impaired

People

Mukesh Prasad Agrawal Atma Ram Gupta

Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Electrical Engineering
National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra National Institute of Technology Kurukshetra
Kurukshetra, Haryana, India 136 119 Kurukshetra, Haryana, India 136 119
[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract—There are many issues over which humans have no According to a survey conducted by an NGO, 98% blind
control blindness is one of such issues. It snatches the vivid visual people have met with accidents while traveling. Also, there are
beauty of the world from an individual’s life. But missing the no special facilities provided to blind people in local transports
beauty of nature becomes one of the last worries of such people as resulting in the high number of accidents involving blind
they have to face numerous difficulties in order to perform even people.
the most basics of tasks in their day to day life. One of their most
dominant problems is of transport, such as crossing roads, We found that the main aids that blind people use are
traveling in trains, or other public places. They always require trained dogs, but such dogs are very expensive and not very
human assistance to do so. But sometimes they are rendered reliable. Some other products available in the market are the
helpless when no such assistance is offered. Their dependencies smart belt, smart ring, smart cane etc. But these devices have
deteriorate their confidence. Traditionally they have been using very limited usability and lack approach due to more cost. So
the conventional cane stick to guide themselves by blind people are not interested in buying such products. Some
touching/poking obstacles in their way. This causes a lot of innovators also tried to assist the blind people [6] using IR
accidents and hence is dangerous for them and others. As this is a sensor, but our research found that IR sensor cannot work in
technologically driven era we decided to aid these differently sunlight because it also contains some amount of infrared rays
abled people by coming up with a technology utilizing solution. which can be detected by photodiode present in IR sensor, our
We call it the “Smart Stick”. It is a device which guides the user device overcomes this limitation as well.
by sensing obstacles in the range of stick. It will identify all
obstacles in the path with the help of various sensors installed in In order to address all above-defined problems and to
it. The microcontroller will retrieve data and pass it on as empower 36 million blind people worldwide, we are
vibrations which will notify the user about hurdles on the way. It introducing a solution of what is christened as “Smart Stick”.
is an efficient device and will prove to be a big boon for blind The stick is integrated with various sensors like ultrasonic
people. sensor, water sensor with GPS-GSM module and RF module
Keywords—Smart Stick; Sensors; GPS-GSM module; RF and with microcontroller etc. Sensors serve as its eyes and the
module; Microcontroller; User Notification Setup. microcontroller as its brain, which will retrieve data from the
surroundings and pass on commands to the user notification
I. INTRODUCTION setup. GPS keeps on monitoring the location of the blind
Our main aim to work on this project is to focus the blind person. RF module will help the blind person to locate the stick
population of the world and to assist them in every walk of life easily.
through the aid of technology. The rest of the paper is arranged as follows: Section Ⅱ
According to the procured data from World Health describes the component of innovation followed by the block
Organization (WHO) [1] and National Federation of the Blind diagram in section Ⅲ; features and working of the smart stick
[2], there are around 253 million people who are visually are covered in section Ⅳ and section Ⅴ respectively; Section Ⅵ
impaired out of which 36 million people are blind worldwide shows Innovation in the proposed work; Section Ⅶ shows the
[3]. impact of smart stick; finally Section Ⅷ wraps up the paper
with brief conclusion.
According to the report by Times of India, India is now
home to the world’s largest number of blind people. Of the 36 II. COMPONENT OF THE INNOVATION
million people across the globe who are blind, over 15 million
are from India [4]. On the other hand, while India needs 2.5 The various components involved in our innovation are as
lakh donated eye every year, the country’s 109 eye banks (five follows:
in Delhi) [5] manage to collect a maximum of just 25,000 eyes, 1. Water sensor: A water sensor in an electronic sensor that is
30% of which cannot be used.
designed to detect the presence of water in the path of blind
people and provide an alert in time to avoid chances of

978-1-5386-1974-2/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 542

 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Inventive Communication and Computational Technologies (ICICCT 2018)
IEEE Xplore Compliant - Part Number: CFP18BAC-ART; ISBN:978-1-5386-1974-2

slipping and drenching of the blind people [7]. Fig. 1. Shows applications. The current drowns in idle mode can be less than
the water sensor used in our smart stick. 1µA. The top CPU speed is 25 MHz [12]. Fig. 6. Shows the
MSP430 microcontroller used in stick.
2. Ultrasonic sensor: An ultrasonic sensor is a device that can
measure the distance to an object by using sound waves. It
measures distance by sending out a sound wave at a specific
frequency and listing for that sound wave to bounce back. By
recording the elapsed time between the sound wave being
generated and the sound wave bouncing back, it is possible to
calculate the distance between the ultrasonic sensor and the
object [8]. We are using this sensor in our stick to detect the
obstacles like pits, pebbles, and cars etc. Fig. 2. and Fig. 3.
shows the ultrasonic sensor used and its working respectively. Fig. 5. SIM808 Module Fig. 6. MSP430 Microcontroller

6. Battery: We are using 12 V rechargeable Li-ion battery. It is

a type of rechargeable battery in which lithium ions move
from the negative electrode to the positive electrode during
discharge and back when charging. Li-ion battery uses an
intercalated lithium compound as an electrode material,
compared to the metallic lithium used in a non-rechargeable
lithium battery [13].
Fig. 1. Water Sensor Fig. 2. Ultrasonic Sensor
7. Buzzer and Vibrator: To notify the user about the hurdle
3. RF module: An RF module is a small electronic device used arriving on his path we are using buzzer and vibrator which is
to transmit and/or receive signals between two devices. It operated by motor driver L293D.
consists of RF transmitter and receiver. The wireless
communication can be accomplished through radio frequency III. BLOCK DIAGRAM
communication [9]. We are using it on our stick to identify the
stick when the stick gets misplaced. Fig. 4. Shows the RF The block diagram of Smart Stick shown in Fig. 7 is
module used in our smart stick. shown in Fig. 8. It shows all the important component
embedded in the smart stick. Water sensor will detect the
presence of water and will send the information to the
microcontroller in digital form, the microcontroller will
analyze this data/information and will send the command to
the user notification setup i.e. buzzer and vibrator according to
our program to alert the blind person. Ultrasonic sensor will
detect the nearby obstacles that can cause an accident of blind
people and the blind person will get informed about the same
Fig. 3. Ultrasonic Working Fig. 4. RF Module in a similar fashion as in case of water sensor. Suppose in case
blind person forgot his/her stick by placing it somewhere else
4. GPS-GSM module: We are using the SIM808 module in then he/she just have to press a button present in provided
our stick to get the real-time location of blind people. SIM808 keypad the data will be sent to RF receiver present in the stick
is a GSM and GPS two-in-one function module. It is based on using RF transmitter, RF receiver will send this data to the
the latest GPS-GSM module SIM808 from SIMCOM, microcontroller, microcontroller will activate the buzzer
supports GSM/GPRS Quad-Band network and combines GPS present in the stick so that blind person can search the stick
technology for satellite navigation [10]. This is a cheaper easily. One of the main features of our stick is to track the
solution than a two-way GPS communication system wherein real-time location of blind people this is done using SIM808
communication is done in both ways with GPS satellites. This GPS-GSM module. We have also provided a panic button to
project uses only one GPS device and two-way help the blind person in case of an emergency.
communication is achieved using a GSM modem. GSM
modem with a SIM card used here implements the same
communication technique as in a regular cellphone [11]. Fig.
5. Shows the SIM808 GPS-GSM module used.
5. Microcontroller: In this project, we are using Texas-
Instruments’ MSP430G2553 microcontroller. It acts as a brain Fig. 7. Smart Stick
for our stick. The MSP430 is a mixed signal microcontroller
family built around a 16-bit CPU, the MSP430 is designed for
low cost and specifically low power consumption embedded

978-1-5386-1974-2/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 543

 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Inventive Communication and Computational Technologies (ICICCT 2018)
IEEE Xplore Compliant - Part Number: CFP18BAC-ART; ISBN:978-1-5386-1974-2

VI. INNOVATION IN THE PROPOSED APPROACH

WATER BUZZER This device of ours utilizes the latest available sensors to
SENSOR aid the people with visual disability. The main innovative
aspect of our project is the traffic detector. The stick vibrates
in relation to the closeness of the incoming vehicle hence
VIBRATOR allowing the user to determine the location of the traffic
ULTRASONIC
SENSOR around him. Some important aspects of our project are:
1. Size: It is a decently sized stick as it has so many features,
RF but still is practical to use and would not limit the user’s
MSP430 RECEIVER movement.
PANIC
BUTTON MICRO 2. Power: It utilizes a rechargeable Li-ion battery which has
CONTR the ability to last for at least 12 hrs.
OLLER
3. Cost: It is a very cost-effective product and provides all
GPS
these features at a reasonable price. We have made it
MODULE RF
TRANSMITTER considering the poor income of typical Indian families and
hence it will be affordable.

VII. IMPACT
We are hoping to greatly impact the lives of blind people
GSM and console the general differently-abled population that even
MODULE KEYPAD if we cannot medically heal them, we still can vastly improve
their daily lives by utilizing advanced technology. This shows
a new start in developing devices which can aid not only
people with disabilities but even normal people in their day to
day lives. Allowing humans to become much more efficient in
Fig. 8. Block Diagram of smart stick their work.

IV. FEATURES VIII. CONCLUSION

The various features of smart stick are: This gadget is a very practical creation which helps blind
1. It can sense obstacles like pebbles, pits, rocks etc. users by acting as his auxiliary senses. It has no-nonsense
design which is purely focused on general usage. Even for
2. It can sense water in the path to avoid slipping or drenching. mass production, it does not require heavy machinery. Based
on the above facts we can confidently conclude that:
3. It can trace the location of the blind person and sends the
data to their relatives to avoid any misfortunes from befalling 1. The smart stick is a simple, cheap, easy to handle electronic
them. guidance device, which is proposed to provide constructive
assistant and support for blind and visually impaired persons.
4. It can be easily located if misplaced.
2. The device is efficient and unique in its capability in
5. It is also having a panic button, blind persons can
specifying the source and distance of the objects that may be
immediately inform their relatives in case of an emergency.
encounter by the blind. It is able to scan areas left, right, and
6. It is cheap hence easy to afford by all potential in front of the blind person regardless of its height or depth.
beneficiaries.
3. It is a user-friendly device and can serve the purpose of
potential beneficiaries.
V. WORKING
When the stick encounters different obstacles in the path ACKNOWLEDGMENT
of blind person then depending upon the type of obstacles data
With profound respect, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to
is sent to the microcontroller. Retrieved data is analyzed by
Mr. Atma Ram Gupta, Assistant Professor in Electrical
microcontroller based upon judgment command is sent to the Engineering Department, NIT Kurukshetra for his continues
output. Vibrations occur in predefined sequences set up during support and co-operation to complete this paper. I have learned
software implementation. No two vibration sequences will a lot working with him and I will always be indebted to him for
seem similar. Data sent by the microcontroller to the output is this valuable addition to me.
in electrical form and this electrical data is converted into
vibrations and alerts the blind.
REFERENCES

978-1-5386-1974-2/18/$31.00 ©2018 IEEE 544

 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Inventive Communication and Computational Technologies (ICICCT 2018)
IEEE Xplore Compliant - Part Number: CFP18BAC-ART; ISBN:978-1-5386-1974-2

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