International Conference on Intelligent Sustainable Systems (ICISS 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19M19-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-7799-5
Smart Portable Assisted Device for Visually Impaired
People
Aritra Ray
A.K.C.S.I.T., University of Calcutta
JD-2, JD Block, Sector III, Salt Lake City, Kolkata, India
aritra98.ray@gmail.com
Abstract— This paper aims to present a designed and
developed version of a portable, low powered instrument to
make lives of visually impaired people of the world, while they
walk on road easier. About 47.7 million people in India suffer
from moderate to severe vision problems, whereas 253 million
visually impaired people are estimated in worldwide
population. The issue is that there is no such production
worthy prototype available to ease the travelling experience
for these people.
The intended device is built on low power embedded
hardware and software technologies, sensors and sensing
technologies, to harness for a social cause, serves to the need of
the visually impaired people. The device is a miniaturized,
non-invasive, portable, low power and convenient device for
the blind people. It is able to detect the obstruction in front of
a road upto a certain distance in all the three dimensions in
space and also to detect the potholes or speed brakers on the
road by a combination of pressure sensors and distance sensor
embedding into the device. With varying distance of obstacle
from the box attached to the walking stick, the speaker would
respond with voice messages denoting the distance of
obstruction in metres (m) so that he can be alerted. We
designed an App that can be opened using the volume turn up
button on an android phone, keeping in mind about our user’s
disabilities (as he is visually impaired). The entire data, i.e., his
current location and intended destination, would be sent to
anothr app in another android device that would be with his
most confidential person/caregivers, wherein his current
location would be monitored.
Keywords— Obstruction detection, Sensor, Android app,
embedded hardware, visually impaired.
I. INTRODUCTION
According to the World Blind Union, there are estimated
253 million people worldwide who are visually impaired
(blind) or partially sighted from 190 countries [1]. In fact,
out of 37 million people worldwide are completely blind,
over 15 million are from India. India records for the highest
population of blind people. About 47.7 million people in
India suffer from moderate to severe vision problems.
Among the visually impaired people worldwide, 82% belong
to the age group of 50 and above [2]. India houses world’s
largest number of blind people.
978-1-5386-7799-5/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
Hena Ray
Centre for Development of Advanced Computing Plot
E-2/1, Block GP, Sector-V, Salt Lake, Kolkata
hena.roy@cdac.in
With respect to the daily lives of visually impaired
individuals, they face an arduous task to accomplish their
basic needs owing to the most prevalent environmental
hazards like any form of obstacle. The lack of perception
disables him/her to sense any obstruction. Moreover, these
obstructions lie both indoors and outdoors. Pedestrians
walking on pavements and roads needs to evade through the
cluttered paths, with vendors, animals, vehicular traffic and
other obstacles. In fact, they can’t cross the road on their
own. It becomes cumbersome for them to gauge the distance
from any obstacle, distance from the vehicular traffic, and
acquaintance with the streets where they are hanging, which
depreciates the autonomous mobility. Navigation beyond the
domains of well-known environment becomes even more
challenging [3]. However, the desired surroundings of
movement, more often than not, is not their accustomed
environment. It includes elucidation of symbols, recognition
of hindrances, perceiving the potholes or unevenness of the
road, spotting the features of the environment, and
maneuvering through these independently, without
resistances. Currently, to find way in an unaccustomed
location, it is repeatedly necessary for the visually impaired
to require aid from another abled person in order to navigate
to their destination. Currently, nothing is in place that aids
movement for such specially abled people using Global
Positioning System (GPS) for their navigation. Among the
solutions currently in place, the simplest one is that of a
walking stick or white cane, as popularly called. Each has its
own disadvantages. Being cheap and portable, the walking is
unable to detect airborne or moving obstacles. Also, it
cannot assist in guiding an individual to a desired destination
[4]. Walking sticks often gets stuck in pavement cracks or
potholes and makes their use pretty unsuitable in some
environments. A guide dog is at times relied upon, however
in unknown environment, where the guide is new to, one
which was so effective in known environment, utterly fails
to navigate. In fact, it is improbable for a guide dog to
understand where his master wants to navigate to, with exact
precision, most of the times, except for the benefits of
companionship and protection [5]. Many insist on using
traditional techniques like the white cane to perceive the
environment. It requires to feel the environment using this
stick, however the disadvantages are severe. But it has its
own deficiency [6]. It cannot detect the obstruction from a
distance. Always the users will have to move their cane in all
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 International Conference on Intelligent Sustainable Systems (ICISS 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19M19-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-7799-5
possible directions to get a feel of the environment. So, it
does become very difficult to sense the external world and
move around freely.
At times, efficiently trained guide dogs are hard to find.
The cost of maintaining them are quite expensive and are
costly to care of. Alongside, some individuals have aversion
for dogs, and thus such a solution is not a suited one for
them. Advanced technological devices exist [7], which
replace vision with other senses to support mobility.
However, these devices are generally not economical to
purchase. The need of the hour is to develop a low-cost
device to help the visually impaired people with detection of
any kinds of obstruction to enhance their living standards.
The development of the path planning system for indoor
application mainly mall, caregiver centres, railway station
etc. and outdoor space without human intervention is the
main objective of this work. Here, we intend to design an
App that can be opened using the volume turn up button on
an android phone, keeping in mind about our user’s
disabilities (as he is visually impaired). There would be a
voice message generated asking him about his intended
destination which he would communicate via speech. Next,
he would be guided entirely using the Google Maps
navigation facility (walking mode feature in navigation),
which we intend to incorporate in that app. The app also
access data from microcontroller to predict and inform his
confidential person about ill-health or difficulties faced by
visually impaired person while on road.
II. COMPONENTS OF SYSTEM
A. Hardware
Our system termed as “Checkmate” consist of a wooden
foldable stick integrated with sensors and power source for
getting the real feel as observed by common people. The
device comprises of the following major hardware modules,
(i) Sensor Array, (iii) Analog Circuitry, (iv) Processor and
digital circuitry, (v) Bluetooth module (vi) Smart phone with
Touch Screen Display, (vii) Power Supply. Checkmate is a
product that is primarily based on an 8-bit microcontroller
(ATmega328), a few distance sensors, four or five in
number, (like HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor), Signal
Conditioner (LM1117), a Pressure Sensor (like 2SMPP-
02(PP02) of OMRON make, a Speaker (like TAS2505-Q1),
Android Devices, walking stick, a buzzer (Piezoelectric)
organized with a power supply (using Li-Ion Rechargeable
batteries - 2500mAh, AA1.2V X 4) and packaged into an
enclosure, that is fitted at the bottom on the walking stick.
On the lower part of the stick, a pressure sensor is attached.
Whenever the stick touches the bottom, a reading is noted
from the pressure sensor and then a reading is noted from the
distance sensor fixed at an angle towards the ground. If the
reading from this sensor exceeds that of the pre-fixed value,
which was obtained by simple pythagoras theorem, then an
appropriate response as a pothole ahead was indicated to the
user, otherwise indication of speed breaker was generated.
The conceptual overview is as shown in Fig. 1. A low power
978-1-5386-7799-5/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE
8-bit RISC Processor is the heart and brain of this device.
This processing device captures the signals from sensor
assembly and routes the data to the Bluetooth module
serially. The ultrasonic sensors captures echo (frequency)
signal in three dimension in space and calculate the distance
between the transducer and targeted object and convert it
into electrical signals (voltages). These signals require
conditioning in the forms of amplification, attenuation and /
or buffering as is appropriate for each of the sensors.
Instrumentation amplifiers do this job. Low-pass filter circuit
is used to filter out the high frequency noise components.
Multiplexed analog-to-digital converters (ADC) then convert
these analog signals into digital forms so as to feed them to
the Processor.
B. Communication Module
Bluetooth Transceiver, SPP (Serial Port Protocol)
module with TTL Outputs is working in 2.4GHz ISM band
and communication with the processing unit through its
serial port. The operating voltage of the chip is 3.3 V. The
transceiver operates in two logic level one is 5 V for
transmission and 3.3 V for Bluetooth module reception. For
protection of Bluetooth device, a voltage divider is
interfaced to provide 3.3. V to the Receiver pin of Bluetooth
module.
The Bluetooth-Module is interfaced with processing unit
via Universal Synchronous asynchronous transceiver
(UART) interface. For wireless transmission of data packet
from Bluetooth module, processor needs to send the message
to Bluetooth module. Baud rate for serial communication
need to be set at 9600 as a default value for data
transmission. The Bluetooth module needs to be coupled to
the Smartphone to establish the communication link.
A smart phone with in-built processor and operating
system communicates with the intelligent unit wirelessly and
acts as Human Machine Interface. The processor board in
Smartphone is capable of handling the digital processing
requirements of the application in addition to data storage
and user interface requirements.
Fig. 1. Conceptual overview of the proposed System
For the proof of concept design of the system, sensor
technology evaluation and path planning mechanism for
navigation was carried out and shown in Table I.
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 International Conference on Intelligent Sustainable Systems (ICISS 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19M19-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-7799-5

TABLE I: SENSOR EVALUATION CHARACTERISTICS

Sensors Detection Detection Range Detectable Bad Night Detection Robustness vs. Size Cost
range angle resolution information weather operation performance Environmental
conditions
(Temperature,
dust)
mm wave Long Narrow Good Velocity, Good Yes Robust and Good Small Low
and range, stable
wide angle
Camera Medium Medium Medium Target Poor No Complexity Poor Small to Low to
classifica to calculate Medium Medium
tion object
coordinates
LIDAR Long Narrow Good Velocity, Poor No Poor in bad Medium Large High
and range, weather
wide angle
Ultrasonic Short Wide Good Range Poor No Short range Medium Small Low
applications
Captivate Short Narrow Good Proximit Good Yes Very short Poor Medium High
y- range
pressure applications

The path traversed is measured by the use of commercial off stick, the speaker would respond with voice messages
the shelve sensor of having ultrasonic range in operation. denoting the distance of obstruction in metres (m) so that he
can be alerted. The target object distance is measured by this
The sensor generates the sound of frequency which is not
sensor by the use of electrical-mechanical energy
audible by human. The sound is reflected by obstacles and transformation. The sensor is embedded into the device for
reflected signal is received by the sensor. The sensor used in its ease of operation and also used to detect the obstacles.
this work is HC-SR04, which emits sonic frequency to d= T/K
measure distance. The advantage of use of such sensor as it
is having a very high range of accuracy in measurement. d is the target object distance. T=Time delay in μs.
k=constant provided by manufacturer in cm.
The operation can be made in open environment, especially
in sunlight. The sensor is basically a transceiver module,
and the operating voltage is 5.0 V. For supplying power too
this sensor we have a rechargeable lithium ion battery. The
device is portable, battery operated, light weight, and
helpful for the disabled person for their daily uses.

III. METHODOLOGY

A. Obstruction Detection in X, Y and Z Plane

The biggest challenge faced by blind persons is

obstacles. To solve this problem, our system provides the
functionality by using Ultrasonic Sensor to avoid the
incoming obstacles. The ultrasonic distance sensors would
be fitted at certain angles in a box, in front of the walking
stick. This can create a three dimensional mapping, or
specifically locate if there is any obstacle within the given
range as programmed which is a sort of mapping of the
obstacles and if there is any obstacle in front of the road up
to a certain distance (as will be set in during programming)
and feed the data into a microcontroller. With varying
distance of obstacle from the box attached to the walking
Fig. 2.Obstracle detection
B. Detection of potholes or speed breakers or uneven road
It would employ the use of a pressure sensor at the toe
end of the walking stick. Thus, whenever the person places
the stick on ground while walking, there will be a reading
obtained from the pressure sensor and then another
ultrasonic distance sensor fitted in the box at an angle
towards the ground would feed its reading into the
microcontroller. (The angle of the sensor would be such that
it would cover only the distance up to the person’s next
step.) From Pythagoras theorem, we can set a pre-defined
reading that should be sensed by the distance sensor.

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 International Conference on Intelligent Sustainable Systems (ICISS 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19M19-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-7799-5
However, if the reading obtained exceeds the predefined
value, it would indicate the person of a pothole like
disturbance ahead while if the reading obtained is lesser than
the pre-defined value, it would indicate of a speed-breaker
like disturbance ahead. A respective voice message would be
transmitted via the speaker to alert the visually impaired
person.
Fig. 3 Block Diagram of the system
C. Android App(To function on Android Device and help
him to navigate to his destination by walking using
Google Maps)
We designed an App that can be opened using the
volume turn up button on an android phone, keeping in mind
about our user’s disabilities (as he is visually impaired).
There would be a voice message generated asking him about
his intended destination which he would communicate via
speech. Next, he would be guided entirely using the Google
Maps navigation facility (walking mode feature in
navigation), which we intend to incorporate in that app. The
same Android App (Access data from microcontroller to
predict and inform his confidential person about ill-health or
difficulties faced by visually impaired person while on road):
The entire data, i.e., his current location and intended
destination, would be sent to the app in another android
device that would be with his most confidential person,
wherein his current location would be monitored. (To login
into this app, his confidential person will have to use a
password so as to prevent misuse of such a technology.) We
intend to monitor the time intervals between each time the
pressure sensor senses the pressure, or in other words, the
time interval between each step of the visually impaired
person. Initially we plan to train the instrument according to
the walking speed of the user (visually impaired person).
Thus, if there is any abnormal reading, like for instance if
there is no reading for quite a period of time while he is out
on road, it might mean he fell down accidentally, or if there
are irregularities between the time intervals, it might indicate
something is wrong about him. Using an algorithm we
would make such judgements and convey the message from
microcontroller to the app and an immediate help response
would be sent at his confidential person’s app along with his
location.
IV. RESULTS
The system is able to identify obstacle and also able to
discriminate the different types of objects. The performance
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of the prototype device is presented in Table II. The
sensitivity for identification of obstacle was found to be
100% for all objects tested, while the sensitivity of object
discrimination was 100% for all objects except the bump in
road.
TABLE II: RESULTS OF OBSTACLE DETECTION
Obstruction Detection
True False Sensitivity
Detection Negative (%)
Wall 30 0 100
Pothholes 30 0 100
Bump in road 29 1 96.66
Doorway 30 0 100
Stair 30 0 100
Car parking 30 0 100
The results presented in Table II imply that the static indoor
and outdoor objects/ obstacles can be detected by the
device. It is important to note here that few objects were not
be detected by the device. Bump and path holes are being
sensed and detected mainly by the use of pressure sensor.
This result may suggest that the visually impaired person
get an alarm whenever he or she faces an obstacle
V. DISCUSSION
In this paper, we have designed a low cost, portable, non-
invasive, battery operated device for the blind people to
understand the obstruction in front of a road in all directions
in space. The device is also able to detect potholes or speed
brakers on the road., Ultrasonic sensor is embedded into the
device to avoid the obstacles and to detect the potholes,
pressure sensors are placed. The speaker attached with
walking stick, would respond with voice messages denoting
the distance of obstruction in metres (m) so that he can be
alerted. An Android App has been designed so that it can be
opened using the volume turn up button on an android
phone, keeping in mind about our user’s disabilities (as he is
visually impaired). The current location and intended
destination, would be sent to the app in another android
device that would be with his most confidential
person/caregivers, wherein his current location would be
monitored. There is no such product available to ease the
travelling experience for these people, this developed device
may be a potent tool for the visually impaired people in our
country. To make the system more ease of operation, and
low weight, research work needs to be carried out on the low
powered sensor, preferably MEMS sensor and battery
technology to withstand more current ratings, durable its
operation.
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 International Conference on Intelligent Sustainable Systems (ICISS 2019)
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP19M19-ART; ISBN: 978-1-5386-7799-5

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