ULTRASONIC AND VOICE-BASED WALKING STICK FOR BLIND

Introduction

The blind people face so many problems and life threating injuries while walking in streets,
roads. Due to these fears they get disappointed to interact with their environment and enjoy
their life. They are totally dependent on their family for mobility and financial support. By
considering all these, our project is about making a walking stick entitled as “SMART
ULTRASONIC AND VOICE-BASED WALKING STICK FOR BLIND ”
that could assist the blind user by giving instructions about the direction and condition of
surrounding environment around him/her during his/her walk.
The proposed system provides improvements to the existing system design. It tries to make
the existing system more efficient,
convenient and user- friendly.

 The tool will be user friendly and

easy to handle (light weighted)
 Low power consumption and cost
effective.
 Quick, noise free and audible
response
 Different alert messages about
obstacles present in different
locations and distances.
The implementation of the blind stick
requires components presented in
block diagram in figure 1. Figure 1: Required Components

In designing this project, we are going to interface four ultrasonic sensors and a light
dependent sensor with Arduino nano. The three ultrasonic sensors will communicate with the
DF Mini Mp3 module and Arduino to create alert messages corresponding to the directions
(left, right, and front) and distances of the obstacle present in the way of the stick user. Using
one of the ultrasonic sensors the smart stick will further provide instructions regarding the
presence of hole to avoid the user from falling. Moreover, we consider that it is more
necessary to provide comfort and confidence to the user walking in dark environment.
Therefore, we will interface a light dependent resistor (LDR) which will detect the dark and
activates corresponding alert messages from the Mp3 module. In addition to this an LED strip
is used with LDR which will glow in dark and alert other people coming in the way of the
blind stick user to avoid collision between them. Furthermore, a buzzer is also used to
provide sudden alertness about the obstacles. To make the alert messages audible to the user,
we will use handsfree than a speaker with the module. This will also enhance the quality of
the voice generated by the module and a clear voice in noisy environment.
In addition to the above, for powering the entire setup, we are going to use a rechargeable
battery connected with dual USB buck and a voltage sensor. The voltage sensor will also
interfaced with the Mp3 module. The module will generate a voice signal below a threshold
value, so that the user could recharge the battery before further using.