International Journal of Preventive Medicine and Health (IJPMH)

ISSN: 2582-7588 (Online), Volume-3 Issue-1, November 2022

Smart and Cost-Effective Device for Visually

Impaired People
Syed Saim, Tooba Khan, Hassan Ali, Fahad Shamim

Abstract: Mobility and navigation are always challenging for Whilst there has been extensive research on smart shoes,
visually impaired people. The daily life activities of these persons usage in the developing world has been limited due to the
are hampered because of their inability to conceive, identify or lack of knowledge and training on the proper usage of these
locate things. Many researchers have developed different devices devices. Furthermore, in mountainous areas, these smart
for blind people using the concept of echolocation. However, those
devices could not benefit blind persons living in an undeveloped
shoes do not prove much effective because there are trenches
areas because of too much complexity, cost, inability to detect and the visually impaired person could fall and be seriously
trenches, and vulnerability. This study aims to address the design injured. Smart shoes are vulnerable as the electronic
and development of a smart device that can efficiently detect components can be damaged by water and other
trenches and obstacles. The 3D model of the prototype is designed environmental factors and this could lead to improper
using Fusion 360 software. The ultrasonic sensors will be used in functioning. The cost of commercially available smart shoes
measuring the distance and if the user is near any obstacle or
trench then Arduino nano will send recorded voices to warn the
is also very high and people cannot afford them. The new aids
user. The voices will pass through the process of amplification and or technologies, when available are either too expensive ($
using a 433MHz Radio Frequency (RF) transmitter these 3000 and above), or affordable ($200) but with limited task
recorded voices will go to the 433MHz receiver set inside the functions only [8].
3D-Printed earphones. The electrical signal received by the This work aims to develop a low-cost, light weighted, highly
433MHZ RF receiver is then changed into sound using the accurate, and well-protected device that will detect the
speaker. Based on the questionnaire of the trial prototype, 94.64%
of respondents stated that the designed device is wearable,
obstacles in front of the user and warn the user through the
reliable, cost-effective, and easy to use. earphones using a wireless radio waves communication
system. The prime feature of this system will be that it will
Keywords: Echolocation, Mobility, Navigation, 3-D Printing
provide the distance of obstacles in inches and also it will
I. INTRODUCTION detect the trenches and warn the user by providing the depth
of trenches in inches using pre-recorded voices. Many
devices for blind people are already available in the market
Blindness is the most painful and the worst form of vision but this device will be unique because of its working, its
impairment. In light of the statistic of the Global Burden of structure, and its accuracy. The prototype will be the practical
Disease (GDB), 2017 report globally almost 48.2 million application of integrated knowledge of programming,
people were blind and also 39.2 million people were echolocation, signal processing, and electromagnetic
suffering from severe vision loss [1]. 90% of visually communication.
impaired people live in low and middle-income countries,
meaning that their access to preventive care education, II. METHODOLOGY
curative services, and quality rehabilitation is not available at
a moderate cost [2]. It was also observed that almost 82% of A. Components
people with blindness are over 50 years old whereas 28% of The following Components are used in this Smart Device:
them are in their working years, which has an impact on their • Arduino Nano
productive life [3]. Numerous research articles have been • Two HC-SRO4 Ultrasonic Sensors
published on smart shoes for the detection of obstacles in • 433 MHz Radio Frequency(RF) Module
front of the user and warning the user by using mobile • 9V DC Power Source
applications [4] [5] [6] [7]. • A speaker of 8Ω
• LM358 Audio Amplifier
• Some Resistors (kΩ) and Capacitors (nF)
Manuscript received on 22 October 2022 | Revised Manuscript • Polylactic Acid (PLA)
received on 13 November 2022 | Manuscript Accepted on 15
November 2022 | Manuscript published on 30 November 2022. B. Design
*Correspondence Author (s) The 3-D Model of this smart device is designed on
Syed Saim*, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Salim Habib
University, Karachi, Pakistan. Email: [email protected] AutoCAD Fusion 360 software. The Arduino nano amplifier
Tooba Khan, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Salim Habib circuit and a power source are placed inside the 3-D printed
University, Karachi, Pakistan. Email: [email protected] model. One ultrasonic sensor is placed on the ground side of
Hassan Ali, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Salim Habib
University, Karachi, Pakistan. Email: [email protected] this model which will help in detecting the trenches. Another
Dr. Fahad Shamim, IBET, Liaquat University of Medical and Health ultrasonic sensor is facing the front side and will help in
Sciences, Jamshoro, Pakistan. Email: [email protected] detecting front obstacles.
© The Authors. Published by Lattice Science Publication (LSP). This is an
open-access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Retrieval Number:100.1/ijpmh.A1022113122 Published By:

DOI:10.54105/ijpmh.A1022.113122 Lattice Science Publication (LSP)
Journal Website: www.ijpmh.latticescipub.com 1 © Copyright: All rights reserved.
 Smart and Cost-Effective Device for Visually Impaired People

These ultrasonic sensors will measure the distance and if being created using two circles of 17mm diameter. The front
the user is near any obstacle or trench then Arduino nano will part also has two rectangles having the dimension of 70mm x
send pre-recorded voices to warn the user. The recorded 40mm and 50mm x 28.5mm. Two circles are again drawn on
voices will further pass through the process of amplification the front side having a diameter of 17mm and the distance
and filtration and then using a 433 MHz Radio Frequency between these two circles is 27mm. By pulling, this 2-D
(RF) transmitter these pre-recorded voices will go to a sketch is converted into a 3-D model. The front HC-SRO4
433MHz receiver set inside the 3D-Printed earphones. The will be placed on the front side and its head will emerge from
electrical signals received by the 433MHZ RF receiver are the holes created using circles. The Left and right parts are
then changed into sound using the speaker. The interaction of modeled just by drawing rectangles having dimensions of
various components of a system is indicated by the following 62mm x 40mm. The back part has dimensions of 70mm x
3D-Model Designed on Tinkercad Software. 40mm. The top part of the Smart Device has dimensions of
Figures (1) and (2) are indicating the basic prototype of a 70mm x 40mm. Furthermore, the front part is cut with the
smart device. Figure (1) is showing the top view of the help of a rectangle having the dimension of 4mm x 3mm, so
prototype and RF in it stands for the Radio Frequency that a connection between ground HCSRO4 and the Arduino
transmitter while figure (2) is showing the front view of the nano could be established. The shape was designed using
prototype. This is just a model. The actual 3-D Printed body AutoCAD’s basic tools but its significance is its dimension.
of the smart device will be designed on AutoCAD Software. Every component is exactly fit into it and no extra space is
used by any part, so that smart device could take up less space
on shoes. Earphones are also designed using AutoCAD.

Fig. 1. Top View of Smart Device Designed on Tinkercad

Fig. 3. 3-D Model of Smart Device Designed on AutoCad

III. IMPLEMENTATION
While using contactless sensors such as ultrasonic sensors,
the time of flight method is a preferred choice for distance
measurements [9]. Time of Flight is the time taken by
ultrasonic waves after emitting from the ultrasonic sensor and
Fig. 2. Front View of Smart Device Designed on then returning back to the ultrasonic sensor after being
Tinkercad reflected from some physical object. HC-SR04 ultrasonic
sensor has a working voltage of 5V DC, 15mA of operating
C. 3-D Modelling on AutoCad
current, an operating frequency of 40kHz, a maximum
The compact smart device is being modeled on the distance of 400cm, a minimum distance of 2cm, an angle
AutoCAD Fusion 360 Software as illustrated in Fig.3. There measurement of 15° and a weight of 20 grams [10]. This
are six parts of this smart device and that is front, ground, left, ultrasonic sensor is 98-100% accurate while having a
right, top and back. All these parts have been designed using precision of 100% [11]. Ultrasonic waves are emitted from
2-D sketching and are then converted into 3-D models using the ultrasonic sensor when the trigger pin of HC-SRO4 is
extruding and pull tools. The ground part is being designed given high voltage using a microcontroller. These ultrasonic
using two rectangles having dimensions of 70mm x 70mm waves will go away from the sensor and after hitting some
and 50mm x 49.8mm respectively. The large rectangle will solid object ultrasonic waves are reflected back to ultrasonic
serve as a base for Arduino nano, power source, RF sensor and using the echo pin of the HC-SRO4
transmitter, and amplifier circuit. In the small rectangle, two microcontroller picks the time of flight of ultrasonic waves in
circles having a diameter of 17mm are drawn and they are microseconds.
placed at a distance of 27mm. Then using the pull tool of
AutoCAD this 2-D sketch is converted into a 3-D Model.
Ground HC-SRO4 sensor will be placed in a small rectangle
and its two heads will emerge out from those holes that are

Retrieval Number:100.1/ijpmh.A1022113122 Published By:

DOI:10.54105/ijpmh.A1022.113122 Lattice Science Publication (LSP)
Journal Website: www.ijpmh.latticescipub.com 2 © Copyright: All rights reserved.
 International Journal of Preventive Medicine and Health (IJPMH)
ISSN: 2582-7588 (Online), Volume-3 Issue-1, November 2022

We have learned in physics that distance covered per unit Distance obtained through the above relation is two times
of time is speed as stated in equation 1. than the actual distance between the ultrasonic reflecting
s=d/t (1) body and HC-SRO4:
So, d will be:
Here, s is the speed of sound, d is the distance covered by
sound wave and t is the time of flight. As the speed of sound d= (s x t)/2 (1.1)
is 343m/s and the time of flight can be obtained through an The distance (d) here is in meters which is the bigger unit so
echo pin then after rearranging the above equation, we can we will convert it into inches.
easily calculate the distance covered by sound waves. But we For, distance in inches we will simply use the value of
have to divide this distance by 2 because it takes half the time s=13503.97 inches/second, in (1.1).
of flight while traveling from the sensor to the object. The In this way, the distance between the reflecting body and
distance obtained using this method will be in SI unit i.e. HC-SRO4 could be obtained in inches.
meter; we will convert this distance into inches.
B. Block Diagram
Both distances obtained from the front and ground
HC-SRO4 sensor will be then analyzed using a
microcontroller. If the distance between the smart device and
the ground will greater than six inches or if the distance
between the smart device and the front obstacle will less than
seven inches then using recorded voices in the Arduino
library i.e. “Talkie.h” ,“Front ,Danger, Red, Alert” and
“Ground, Danger ,Red, Alert” voices will be sent by the
microcontroller to the speaker. Arduino has different built-in
libraries which provide extra functionalities for different
uses. Talkie.h is a software implementation of the Texas
Instruments speech synthesis architecture and contains over
1000 different words that can be used for Arduino [12].
Moreover, using words in talkie library, the microcontroller
will also send the distance of obstacles from the device and Fig. 4. Block Diagram of the Complete System
the depth of trenches in inches in the form of audio signals so
that the user could easily overcome this situation. The audio IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
signals generated by the microcontroller will be amplified
A. Testing and Evaluation of Prototype
using an LM358 operational amplifier because signals have
very low amplitude and then the filtration process is done to The prototype was tested on ten subjects i.e. five subjects
reduce the noise. After filtration, audio signals will reach to were the inhabitants of a mountainous area (Kashmir) and the
433MHz Radio Frequency (RF) transmitter that will send remaining five subjects used to live in a plain area (Karachi,
audio signals to the 433MHz RF receiver wirelessly. Pakistan). All ten respondents tested the smart device three
Radiofrequency transmission is more reliable than Infrared times at different places and gave their valuable feedback by
transmission because it uses a selected frequency and the filling out a questionnaire. The testing can be seen in Fig 5.
effect of noise can be reduced to much extent. 433MHz The main motive of the questionnaire is to check the
transmitter will send data through radiowaves using the reliability and usefulness of the smart device
technique of amplitude modulation. The data can be TABLE 1. QUESTIONNAIRE
transmitted to a minimum of three meters using this RF Rating
No. Questionnaire
transmitter [13]. RF Receiver in 3-D printed earphones will VG G NG B
receive modulated RF signal and then demodulate it. After Smart Device informed you about
1 8 1 1
the existence of the obstacles
demodulation of the audio signal, it will be fed into the Smart Devices warned you about
speaker which will change this signal into sound. In this way, 2) trenches in your path by 8 1 1
the sound will directly reach the ear canal of the user. providing the exact depth
The process of the response time
3) 6 1 2 1
A. Calculations of smart devices was fast
4) The prototype is easy to use 9 1
For detecting the distance between the HC-SRO4 and The voice from the speaker of the
ultrasonic waves reflecting body, the following calculations 5) earphone giving you information 8 1 1
have been done in the source code: was clear and audible
Travel Time = pulse In (Echo Pin, HIGH); 6) This prototype is light to lift 10
7) Smart Device is affordable 8 1 1
Since TravelTime obtained from HC-SRO4’s echo pin is in 8) Smart Device is reliable 7 2 1
microseconds so we will convert it into seconds. 4800 400 100 0
Total Points
Time of Flight (t)= TravelTime/1000000 5300
The speed of Sound is 767.29 miles per hour which is equal *VG=Very Good, G=Good, NG= Not Good, B=Bad
to 343 meters per second.
By rearranging (1) distance can be calculated as:
d=sxt

Retrieval Number:100.1/ijpmh.A1022113122 Published By:

DOI:10.54105/ijpmh.A1022.113122 Lattice Science Publication (LSP)
Journal Website: www.ijpmh.latticescipub.com 3 © Copyright: All rights reserved.
 Smart and Cost-Effective Device for Visually Impaired People

The result from Table 1 is processed by the Likert Scale. This paper also illustrates that theoretical concepts of
Based on table 1, the first column (VG) has a value equal to Biomedical Engineering are helpful in solving different
75, the second column (G) is equal to 50, the third column real-world problems.
(NG) is equal to 25, and the last column (B) is equal to
zero[14]. The formula for measuring the validity of the ACKNOWLEDGMENT
result is:
We thank Dr. Muhammad Hussain Habib (Salim Habib
Average Score=Total Score/Total No. of Items (2) University, Karachi) and Mr. Ahmed Saleh Raja (Steps
The total score could be obtained by multiplying the total College, Rawalpindi) for motivating and supporting us. We
answers of the questionnaire of the column with the value of will always remember their efforts, prayers, support, and
each column. We obtained a total score of 5300. The total No. contribution to our research work.
of items is equal to 80 (Eight questions, multiplied by ten
users). Putting values in 2, we get: REFERENCES
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➢ Many important concepts of Electronics, Mechanics,
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Programming can be understood by reading the
literature on this Smart Device.

Retrieval Number:100.1/ijpmh.A1022113122 Published By:

DOI:10.54105/ijpmh.A1022.113122 Lattice Science Publication (LSP)
Journal Website: www.ijpmh.latticescipub.com 4 © Copyright: All rights reserved.
 International Journal of Preventive Medicine and Health (IJPMH)
ISSN: 2582-7588 (Online), Volume-3 Issue-1, November 2022

AUTHORS PROFILE
Syed Saim is a student of Biomedical Engineering in
Salim Habib University (SHU), Karachi Pakistan
having excellent C.G.P.A. (4/4) in academics (54/138
Credit Hours Completed).He has strong interest in
Biosignal Processing, Modelling and Simulation,
Biomaterials, Biomechanics, electromagnetism,
Biosensors and, 3-D Printing. He is an enthusiastic and
always tries to find the solution of different real-world problems using
theoretical concepts of engineering and life sciences. Mr. Saim is very
passionate in performing biomedical engineering research. He is motivated
in updating his research skills through continuous reading of research articles
and other literary books and currently, his research work has been accepted
for presentation in renowned international conferences. As a General
Secretary of Arts and Literature Society SHU, he is spreading the message of
innovation and creativity with his pen and has organized webinars on the
topic of “Basics of Research”. He has excellent verbal and written
communications skills and has won several honorary awards in the field of
Biomedical Engineering and Literature.

Engr. Tooba is currently working as a lecturer in the

Department of Biomedical Engineerng, Salim Habib
University. She has completed her bachelor’s degree in
Biomedical Engineering from NEDUET, Karachi in
2019 and secured 2nd position in her batch. She has
completed her masters in Biomedical Engineering with
the specialization in Biomaterials from NEDUET,
Karachi in 2021. Her masters’ research work was focused on the Fabrication
of PVA/BG composite for wound healing applications. She has
supervised various students’ projects in the field of Biomaterials,
Biomechanics, Electronics etc. She also has an experience of supervising
Final Year design projects. She is also an active member of SHU Final Year
Project Committee.

Engr. Hassan is currently working as a lecturer in the

Department of Biomedical Engineering, Salim Habib
University. He has earned the undergraduate and
post-graduate degree in the field of Biomedical
engineering with specialization. He is now perusing
PhD in the same discipline. He has published several
research articles in international conferences. He has
more than 10 years of teaching and research
experience. His research interests include Modeling and Simulation,
Rehabilitation Engineering, Biomaterials and BioInstrumentation.

Dr. Fahad Shamim is a Biomedical Engineer and has

completed his masters in medical electronics and
physics. His PhD is in NMRR and NMRI and currently
he is working as an assistant professor at the institute
of biomedical enginnering and technology, LUMHS,
Jamshoro. His research areas include Magnetic
Resonance Imaging, Bio Instrumentation, Medical
Electronics and Biomechanics.

Retrieval Number:100.1/ijpmh.A1022113122 Published By:

DOI:10.54105/ijpmh.A1022.113122 Lattice Science Publication (LSP)
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