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Design and Construction of a Smart Walking Stick for Visually Impaired

Individuals.

Conference Paper · November 2018

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 The 6th East African Healthcare Engineering Regional Conference and Exhibition (EARC 2018)
28th to 30th November 2018 , Hotel Africana, Kampala, UGANDA

Design and Construction of a Smart Walking Stick for Visually Impaired

Individuals.

Odong Sam, Niwareeba Roland, Tumwijukye Michael, Ijotre Nobert and Maraka Martin
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Kyambogo University
Corresponding Author: Odong Sam: Email: odongsam.ug@gmail.com Telephone:+256777753033/
+256701306097
Abstract - In this paper, a smart walking
cane for the visually challenged is Blind people have used the white cane as a
presented. The proposed device can detect mobility tool for thousands of years but the
obstacles as well as water in the user's modern white cane did not come into
path. It also has an additional feature in existence until World War I [4].
that it can easily be located by the user in
case it is lost or misplaced, and this feature Several smart walking sticks have been
is done using radio frequency waves where presented [5,6,7] . Most of the solutions
there is a radio frequency receiver circuit on presented involve a traditional white cane
the stick and a separate radio frequency with ultrasonic sensors that detect obstacles
transmitter circuit which triggers an alarm on in the path of the user.
pressing a pushbutton. A conventional
In this paper, a smart walking stick for
walking cane forms the main frame of the
visually impaired individuals is presented.
device, upon which ultrasonic sensors are
The design consists of a conventional white
mounted at appropriate locations to detect
cane with ultrasonic sensors to detect
obstacles and the water sensors to detect
obstacles, steps and pits in the path of the
water in the path of the user. The mentioned
user. It has a water sensor that detects
sensors send a signal to an Arduino
presence of water in the path of the user
programmed chip that communicates with
and also it makes sound so that the user
the alarm unit that comprises of a buzzer
can be able to locate it in case it is
and vibrator that notify the user of the
misplaced.
obstacle or water in their path. The device is
lightweight and is powered by a battery. The II. PROPOSED SMART WALKING
overall design of the device ensures STICK
accuracy, energy efficiency and easy
portability. The block diagram for the proposed smart
walking stick is shown in fig 1. It is made up
Keywords - visually impaired, white cane, of two sections, namely the Transmitter
ultrasonic sensors Section and the Receiver Section.
I. INTRODUCTION
According to World Health Organization
(WHO), there are approximately 1.3 billion
people that live with some form of distance
or near vision impairment. Out of this
number, 188.5 million people have mild
vision impairment and 36 million people are
blind [1]. The term visio impairment means
a decreased ability to see to a degree that
causes problems not fixable by usual
means such as glasses. [2]. Blindness is
defined as the state of being totally sightless
in both eyes. A completely blind person is Fig1. Block diagram for the smart walking
stick
unable to see at all. [3]
 The 6th East African Healthcare Engineering Regional Conference and Exhibition (EARC 2018)
28th to 30th November 2018 , Hotel Africana, Kampala, UGANDA

A. Transmitter Section detected by the sound wave receiver.

HCSR04ultrasonic sensor with arrange of
This is composed of the search button, the 2cm-4m was used [8].
microcontroller and the RF transmitter
module. The schematic diagram is shown in D. Water sensor
fig 2.
VOLTAGE1
7805 RF TRANSMITTER The water sensor consists of two metal
3
VO VI
1
HC-06
Vcc
GND
strips that are connected to the Arduino
GND

Bluetooth
TXD
D1 RXD micro controller. When the two wire ends
2

C6 www.TheEngineeringProjects.com
100U

R7
BLUETOOTH HC-06 come into contact with water, they complete
1C2 ATMGA328
10K
1
28
RTCC
MCLR
RA0
RA1
6
the circuit and trigger the
7
27
26
OSC1
OSC2/CLK
RA2
RA3
8
9 vibrator.
18 10
RC0 RB0
B2 19 11
9V SEARCH BUTTON
20
21
22
RC1
RC2
RC3
RB1
RB2
RB3
12
13
14
E. Micro controller
RC4 RB4
23 15
RC5 RB5
24 16
RC6 RB6

X2
CRYSTAL
25
RC7 RB7
17
R6
10K
The ATMEGA 328P-PU microcontroller
which is low-power CMOS 8-bit
D2
C7
100n
C8
100n
LED-RED microcontroller based on the AVR enhanced
RISC architecture was used. [9]. This
contains the program code that runs the
Fig 2. Schematic diagram of the transmitter system. It creates a link between the
section sensors and the alarm unit.
B. Receiver Section The maximum current consumption for the
This section is composed of the ultrasonic ATMEGA 328P IS 9mA when [9].
sensor, the water sensor, the RF receiver The minimum values of the resistors can be
module, the buzzer, the vibrator and the calculated from (1.2) as 0.56 kΩ. 10 kΩ
microcontroller. resistors were used.
(1)
The circuit diagram for the receiver section
is shown in fig 3.. F. Feedback output unit
VOLTAGE REGULATOR
7805
OBSTACLE SENSOR
This unit is comprised of a buzzer and a
3
VO VI
1
TestPin www.TheEngineeringProjects.com
vibrator
GND

BUZ1
D3
2

R2
Trigger

C3
G. The program execution block
Echo

10K
Gnd

BUZZER
+5V

100U
C2 R3 IC1 ATMEGA328
1000U 10K
LED-RED 1
RTCC RA0
28 6 Q1
MCLR RA1
D5
This block is used to execute commands
7
27
RA2
8
R1 BC547
OSC1 RA3
26 9
OSC2/CLK 10K 12V
B1

and carry out calculations as programmed

18 10
RC0 RB0
9V 19 11
RC1 RB1
20
RC2 RB2
12 R4 VIBRATOR
21 13
RC3 RB3

depending on the signals it receives from

22 14 10K
RC4 RB4
WATER SENSOR 23 15
RC5 RB5
X1 24 RC6 RB6
16
25
CRYSTAL 17
RC7 RB7

C1
100n
RF RECIEVER
www.TheEngineeringProjects.com
Q2
BC547
the sensor input block in order to control the
C4
100n
Bluetooth
HC-06
RXD
TXD
GND
components in the output block.
Vcc

BLUETOOTH HC-06
It made up of a crystal oscillator X1,
capacitors C1, C4; and a microcontroller IC1.
Fig 3. Circuit diagram for the receiver The microcontroller chip (IC1) is
section programmed in C such that if the input
C. Ultrasonic sensor signal voltages from the input devices reach
the programmed conditions, it switches on
The ultrasonic sensor produces sound the output respectively.
waves to detect objects. An Ultrasonic
The crystal oscillator X1 generates a clock
sensor sends sound waves towards an
obstacle and as they are reflected, they are signal for timing purposes in the
 The 6th East African Healthcare Engineering Regional Conference and Exhibition (EARC 2018)
28th to 30th November 2018 , Hotel Africana, Kampala, UGANDA
microcontroller program whereas capacitors
C2 and C5 filter out any noise induced in this
signal before reaching the microcontroller.
H. The output block
This block is used majorly for notification,
alerting the blind person of the detected
obstacle or position of the stick; and water
that has been detected ahead of him/her.
When the obstacle from the ultrasonic
distance sensor is detected, the
microcontroller in the program execution
block sends a signal to the base of Q1 via
current limiting resistors R1; which turns on
causing current to flow through the buzzer
hence alarming.
When water on ground is detected by the
water sensor, the microcontroller in the
program execution block sends a signal to
the base of Q2 via current limiting resistors
R4; which turns on causing current to flow
through the vibrator hence vibrating.
When the walking stick is out of reach from
the blind user, he/she presses the switch
sending an RF signal to this circuit making
the microcontroller in the program block to
send a voltage signal to the base of Q1 via
current limiting resistors R1; which turns on
causing current to flow through the buzzer
hence alarming.
Resistors R1 and R4 limit current through the
bases of transistors Q1 and Q2 respectively.
The system also has a RF transmitter
system that sends signals to the RF
receiver on the stick to trigger an alarm
when a push button is pressed.
The actual Radio Frequency transmitter
system is shown in fig 4.
Fig 4. Actual RF transmitter
III. EVALUATION OF THE SMART
WALKING STICK
The smart walking stick was tested and it
produces sound when the obstacle is within
a range of 2cm -1m.
When the water sensor touches water, a
message is sent to the visually impaired
individual inform of a vibration.
When the search button is pressed, the
sound is activated. This was tested from a
distance of up to 10m.
A simple, cheap, configurable, easy to
handle electronic guidance system is
proposed to provide constructive assistance
and support for blind and visually impaired
persons. The system is designed,
implemented, tested, and verified. The real-
time results of the system are encouraging;
It revealed an accuracy of,
 90% in detecting obstacles.
 99% in detecting water.
 95% in sending and receiving the RF
signals from the transmitter to the
receiver.
The results indicate that the system
is efficient in its ability to detect
obstacles and water that may
encounter the blind.
IV. RECOMMENDATIONS
 It can be further enhanced by using
VLSI technology to design the PCB
(printed circuit
board) unit. This makes the system
further more compact.
 A wall following function can also be
added so that the user can walk straight
along a corridor in an indoor
environment.
 The system can be supplemented with a
GPS module that can be
used to locate the person in case he/she
is lost.
V. CONCLUSION
All the studies which had been reviewed
show that, there are a number of techniques
 The 6th East African Healthcare Engineering Regional Conference and Exhibition (EARC 2018)
28th to 30th November 2018 , Hotel Africana, Kampala, UGANDA

for making a smart walking stick for blind

people. The advantage of the system lies in
the fact that it can prove to be a very low
cost solution to millions of blind person
worldwide. The smart white cane is a
practically feasible product and convenient
to carry around like any other walking stick.
This could also be considered a crude way
of giving the blind a sense of vision.

REFERENCES

[1] WHO. (2018, October) Blindness and vision

impairment. [Online].
https://www.who.int/blindness/en/

[2] WHO. [Online].

www.who.int/blindness/Change%20the%20Definiti
on%20of%20Blindness.pdf

[3] (2016, May) Medical Definition of Blindness.

[Online].
https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp
?articlekey=20629

[4] World Blind Union. [Online].

http://www.worldblindunion.org/English/resource
s/Pages/White-Can-information.aspx

[5] Sharma Sharang , Gupta Manind , Kumar Amit ,

Tripathi Meenakshi , and Gaur Singh Manoj ,
"Multiple distance sensors based smart stick for
visually impaired people," in 2017 IEEE 7th Annual
Computing and Communication Workshop and
Conference (CCWC), Las Vegas, 2017.

[6] Chaurasia Shashank and Kavitha K.V.N., "An

electronic walking stick for blinds," in International
Conference on Information Communication &
Embedded Systems, 2014.

[7] Sharada Murali et al., "Smart walking cane for the

visually challenged," in 2016 IEEE Region 10
Humanitarian Technology Conference (R10-HTC),
Agra, 2016, pp. 1-4.

[8] ELEC Freaks. Ultrasonic Ranging Module HC - SR04.

Document.

[9] MICROCHIP. (2018)

ATmega48A/PA/88A/PA/168A/PA/328/P.
Dcoument.

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