THE INSTITUTE OF FINANCE MANAGEMENT

FACULTY OF COMPUTING,
INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND
MATHEMATICS

DEPATRMENT OF INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY

BACHELOR OF SCIENCE IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

ACADEMIC YEAR: 2021/2022

YEAR 3, SEMESTER 2

FINAL YEAR PROJECT REPORT

NAME OF PROJECT: SMART CANE SYSTEM

GROUP MEMBERS:

FULL NAME: REGISTRATION NO:

MAKYAO DANIEL J. IMC/BIT/1911478

CLEMENCY KIMAMBO IMC/BIT/1911571

ALLY, ABDALLAH SAID IMC/BIT/1911562

AMBONISYE G. MWAMBOLA IMC/BIT/1911596

MABULA G. MASUNGA IMC/BIT/18/97489

ABUBAKARY MBYANA IMC/BIT/18/97161

SUPERVISOR: Mr. ABDALLAH SIPHY

 DECLARATION
We certify that this project report does not incorporate, without
acknowledgement, any material previously submitted for a bachelor
degree or post graduate diploma in institute or university and to the
best of our knowledge and belief, it does not contain any material
previously published or written by another person or our self except
where due reference is made in the text. We also here by give
consent for our report if accepted, to be made available for
photocopying and for inter-library loans, and for the tittle summary to
be made available to outside organizations.

DATE………………………….

Name of Candidate Signature

1. MAKYAO DANIEL J. ……………………….

2. AMBONISYE G. MWAMBOLA
………………………..
3. ALLY, ABDALLAH SAID
…………………………
4. CLEMENCY A. KIMAMBO
……………………….
5. ABUBAKARY MBYANA ……………………….
6. MABULA G. MASUNGA
……………………….

Countersigned by:

Signature of supervisor(s) Date:/.../..../…….

Name of Supervisor(s)

..................................... ABDALLAH, SIPHY

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 ABSTRACT
Smart cane system is a combination of two subsystems which
integrated together to improve navigation for blind people. Those
subsystems are smart blind stick and mobile application named ‘’we
smarts’’. Smart blind stick is the stick which integrated with
ultrasonic sensor which detect obstacles ahead using ultrasonic
wave. On sensing obstacles the sensor passes this data to
microcontroller named ‘’nodemsu”, the controller process data and
calculate if the obstacle is close enough or not. If obstacle is close
the controller sends signal to sound a buzzer and if not do nothing.
Mobile application designed to monitor smart blind stick, has
features to help both blind people to ask help from their relative
when he or she loose direction by pressing button which send his or
her current location, also for the relatives will use the maps feature
in the App to track the current location of the blind.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
At very beginning, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to
Almighty God for giving us the strength and composure to complete
our project and prepare this report within scheduled time.

We would like to extend our special regards to the Institute of

finance management (IFM) for giving the opportunity to carry out
study for a period of three year.

We express sincere thanks to our project supervisor Mr. Abdallah

Siphy for his novel association of idea, encouragement, appreciation
and intellectual zeal which motivated us to venture this project
successfully.

Finally, it is pleased to acknowledge the indebtedness to all those

who devoted themselves directly or indirectly to make this project
success.

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 Table of Contents
DECLARATION..............................................................................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................................iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.................................................................................................................................iv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.............................................................................................................................vi
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................................1
1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT......................................................................................................................1
1.2 EXISTING SOLUTION...........................................................................................................................1
1.3 EXPECTED SOLUTION.........................................................................................................................2
1.4 OBJECTIVES........................................................................................................................................2
1.3.1 MAIN OBJECTIVE.........................................................................................................................2
1.3.2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES..................................................................................................................2
1.5 MOTIVATION.....................................................................................................................................3
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW..........................................................................................................4
C HA P TE R TH RE E : S YS T E M A NA LYS I S A ND DE SI GN. .....................................................................5
3.1. METHODOLOGY................................................................................................................................5
3.1.1. System Configuration Design.....................................................................................................5
3.1.2. System Architecture..................................................................................................................6
3.2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS..................................................................................................................8
3.2.1. Functional Requirements...........................................................................................................8
3.2.2. Non–Functional Requirements..................................................................................................8
3.3. STRUCTURED DESIGN.......................................................................................................................9
3.3.1. Use case diagram.......................................................................................................................9
3.3.2. Logical Dataflow Diagram........................................................................................................10
CHAPTER FOUR: USER INTERFACES...........................................................................................................11
4.1. MOBILE APP USER INTERFACES......................................................................................................11

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 4.2. SMART BLIND STICK INTERFACES....................................................................................................14
CHAPTER FIVE: IMPLEMENTATION............................................................................................................15
5.1. HARDWARE SPECIFICATION............................................................................................................15
5.2. SOFTWARE SPECIFICATION.............................................................................................................15
CHAPTER SIX: TESTING..............................................................................................................................17
6.1. PURPOSE OF TESTING.....................................................................................................................17
6.2. APPLICATION OVERVIEW................................................................................................................17
6.3. TESTING THE SCOPE........................................................................................................................17
6.3.1. IN SCOPE..................................................................................................................................17
CHAPTER SEVEN: EVALUATION..................................................................................................................19
7.1. COST ESTIMATION..........................................................................................................................19
7.2. PROJECT TIMEFRAME.....................................................................................................................20
CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSSION...............................................................................................................21
8.1. CONCLUSSION................................................................................................................................21
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................22

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7
 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

IFM - Institute of Finance and Management.

IDE – Integrated Development Environment.

GPS - Global Position System.

MCU - Micro-controller.

SBS – Smart Blind Stick.

SCS – Smart Cane System.

LDD – Logical Dataflow Diagram.

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 CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Eyes are one of the senses which is very important for humans
because it serves to record the circumstances or conditions that are
all around, so people can find out things that he saw. Anyone can do
a variety of activities more easily if they have normal eyesight.
However, not everyone was born with a normal eye, there are also
experiencing a vision disorder since birth.

1.1 PROBLEM STATEMENT.

In Tanzania, an estimated 1.1 million people are visually impaired
and 33,000 are blind, with average household size of five, at least
4.7 million people are directly affected by blindness and visual
impairment in Tanzania. The biggest challenge for a blind person,
especially the one with the complete loss of vision, is to navigate
around places which result for them to get lost or injuries and
fractures.

1.2 EXISTING SOLUTION.

One of the problem often encountered by the blind people is the
limitation of activities and mobility. So blind people desperately need
tools for detecting obstruction so they could walk anywhere without
worry of going into crash on objects in front of them. Therefore to
solve their problem and facilitate the mobility through the use of
cane. The blind cane is one of the important facilities for the blind to
help them in walking. This stick is used to detect the obstacle when
in touch with the object so it will not be used to detect those objects
out of the range and above the ground. Also by using this cane the
relative and close people will not be able to track their current
location of the blind people.

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1.3 EXPECTED SOLUTION
Due to all explained problems and the limitation of the existing
solutions we come up with the new solution which known as smart
cane system. The smart cane system help the blind people to
navigate around places through detecting ahead obstacles, also help
the blind person to ask help from close person when he or she is
lost, also this help relatives to receive the message from the blind
and tracks the current location of the blind.

1.4 OBJECTIVES
The project has main objectives and specific objectives as given
below.

1.3.1 MAIN OBJECTIVE

The main objective of this project is to develop smart cane system

which should help blind person to navigate around places and to be
tracked by his or her relatives or guardians.

1.3.2 SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

The specific objectives of this project are the following:-

i. Develop smart blind stick which can help blind person to

navigate around places.
ii. Develop mobile application which can help blind person
relatives to track location of blind person.
iii. To develop smart cane system which will integrate both
smart blind stick and mobile application.

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 1.5 MOTIVATION.
Our ultimate motivation is various research works which performed
by various researchers to provide an efficient navigation aid for blind
persons. Initially, blind person just depended upon others for their
basic needs and mobility. After that, many blind persons used the
traditional white cane to guide their path but they have certain
limitations. Although the white cane is inexpensive, it cannot detect
obstacles accurately, and it can only detect obstacles by touch, so
the user may get less time to react to situations, which is very
dangerous for the user. Therefore we come up with ideal of smart
blind stick which should guide blind persons by detect away
obstacles.

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 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW.
This chapter presents the necessary concepts and background
information for a good understanding of the project by reviewing
briefly the previous work to facilitate blind person mobility and
activity.

2.1. The third eye for the blind using Arduino and ultrasonic
sensor.

This was a wearable technology for the blinds. This technology was
equipped by Arduino Uno and ultrasonic sensors. Using sensor,
visually impaired can detect the objects around them and can travel
easily. When the sensor detects any object it will notify the user by
beep or vibration.

2.2. Smart walking stick for blind person.

The system contains the ultrasonic sensor, water sensor, voice play
back board, raspberry pi and speaker. The system detects the
obstacle images which are present in outdoor and indoor with the
help of camera. The stick measures the distance between the objects
and smart walking stick by using an ultrasonic sensor

2.3. Smart walking stick for visually impaired people.

The different sensors like object sensors (Ultrasonic sensors),

humidity sensor, temperature sensor and light sensor are used.
Speaker and volume control is used in the form the status to the
blind people. GPS is used to track to the blind people path and
emergency conditions are transmitted to the neighbor through GSM
based alarm system.

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 CHAPTER THREE: SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN.

3.1. METHODOLOGY.

3.1.1. System Configuration Design.

Smart cane system is the system which incorporate smart blind stick
and mobile application (we smarts). Smart blind stick incorporate
ultrasonic sensor, controller (node msu), buzzer, gps and two
switches. When the switch of the smart blind stick is turned on, the
system will immediately detect the distance so that at that time also
will respond to value to the distance in accordance with the distance
measured by the sensor. If the distance is detected more than 60 cm
then the buzzer will not sound. However, if the distance is less than
60 cm is detected then the buzzer will sound. For the GPS system
used, the GPS module will continuously update the smart cane
position and this data will be sent to the Mobile application (we
smarts) so that the relatives can track the location in real time. If the
blind person feels lost, the smart cane will automatically send an
SMS requesting help by pressing the emergency button provided.

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3.1.2. System Architecture.

a. Smart blind stick.

Figure 1: SBS system architecture.

b. Mobile application (we smarts).

Figure 2: mobile application system architecture.

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Initialization start in mobile application interface when the guardian
of blind person register to the system, blind person and the
assigning of the Nodemcu unique Id to the Blind man and guardian

Since the Guardian acts as the super admin the following details are
to be filled (name, phone number, controller id, name of blind person
and password) and guardian is authenticated by the help of firebase
authentication and assigned user id the and then by PHP server
store the details of guardian to the MySQL relational database and
assigned token to control session.

The guardian account as the super admin is able to register relative

related by the blind man who is identified by the Nodemcu Id and
relatives are assigned username and password. And authenticated
by firebase and then stored to MySQL database and also assigned
token.

The Mobile application pulls the longitude and latitude from the
Firebase Real-time database and by the help of Google map API we
are able to view the target location on the mobile application.

The notification initialization is when the blind man presses the

button which sends token to PHP server and token is sent to the
firebase by the help of firebase notification API the token is
assigned to the user id of the specific Nodemcu which lead to all the
relatives getting the message.

Also the relative are able to communicate and decide who is going to
pick up the blind person and who won’t be able to reach all this
enabled by the user ids.

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3.2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS.

3.2.1. Functional Requirements.

I. System should allow the blind to ask help from guardian.

II. System should allow the guardian to accept the message from
blind by either agree or disagree.

III. System should allow the blind to detect the obstacle found within
60 cm from blind person.

IV. The system should allow the guardians to track the current
location of the blind.

V. The system should keep the records of the location of the blind at
current time and previously time.

3.2.2. Non–Functional Requirements.

I. Usability.

Smart Cane System implementation should be feasible using

technologies that are accessible to the end-users.

II. Portability.

The mobile interfaces must be compatible with Android.

III. Space Efficiency.

The system allows for obstacle detection within the range of 60 cm.

IV. Performance Efficiency.

Smart Cane System must perform in a proper time constraint that

reflects average walking speed, motion and obstacles in the
environment.

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V. Delivery.

The language should be localized to the preference of the user.

3.3. STRUCTURED DESIGN.

3.3.1. Use case diagram.

The use case diagram of smart cane system.

Figure 3: use case of SCS.

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3.3.2. Logical Dataflow Diagram.

The logical diagram of smart cane system.

Figure 4: LDD of smart cane system.

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 CHAPTER FOUR: USER INTERFACES.
This chapter present the user interfaces of smart cane system,
include both mobile application interfaces and smart blind stick
interfaces.

4.1. MOBILE APP USER INTERFACES.

4.1.1. Login/signup.

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4.1.2. Dashboards.

12
4.1.3. Other pages.

13
4.2. SMART BLIND STICK INTERFACES.

Figure 5: User Interface of SBS.

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 CHAPTER FIVE: IMPLEMENTATION.
5.1. HARDWARE SPECIFICATION.
NO: DEVICE NAME DESCRIPTION QUANTITY.
1. NodeMcu(ESP8266) Microcontroller board. 1
2. NEO-6M GPS Satellite search. 1
3. Ultrasonic sensor Proximity sensor 1
4. Pin Button Output signals 1
5. Buzzer Tiny speaker 1
6. Switch Control circuit flow 1
7. Battery Power the device 1
8. Jump wires Connect circuit 34

Table 1: SBS hardware specifications.

5.2. SOFTWARE SPECIFICATION.

5.2.1. Smart Blind Stick.

NO: TOOL. DESCRIPTION.

1. Arduino IDE An IDE to code and upload software.
2. Arduino Programming Enable interact with electronic
Language. objects.
3. TinyGPS++ library Parse GPS NME data.
4. Firebase Arduino Library Integrate Nodemcu with Firebase.
5. ESP8266WiFi Library Integrate Nodemcu with Wi-Fi.
6. Software Serial Library Serial communication of digital pins.

Table 2: SBS software specifications.

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5.2.2. Mobile Application.

NO: TOOL. DESCRIPTION.

1. Visual Studio Code Text Editor for programming languages.
2. Flutter Framework for dart programming
language.
3. Firebase Real Time database for storing real time
data (e.g. gps long and latitude).
4. MySQL Relational database
5. PHP Server Side Programming language.

Table 3: Mobile application software specification

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 CHAPTER SIX: TESTING.
6.1. PURPOSE OF TESTING.
This party explains the various activity performed as party of the
testing of the smart cane system.

6.2. APPLICATION OVERVIEW.

Smart cane system is the IOT system that uses technology to help
blind person to detect the obstacles by using ultrasonic sensor. This
system help the blind to detect obstacle through the buzzer sound
when an obstacle detected and also help the blind person to ask for
help when get lost. Here there is several module like detecting
obstacles, detecting location, registering in an application, sending
message to the application which are integrated to fulfill the
purpose.

6.3. TESTING THE SCOPE.

6.3.1. IN SCOPE.

Functional testing for the following modules are in scope of testing.

Registration.

The registration functionality is tested by various blind person

guardians to register themselves on the mobile application and also
try to register other relatives or next of kiln who can help to take the
blind person if lost.

Detecting obstacles.

The smart blind stick was tested by blind person on how it can be
used to detect the obstacles in front of him. The obstacles was
detected by using ultrasonic sensor and the buzzer on the stick
produce noisy which helps to tell blind person that there is
obstacles.

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Sending Notification to the guardian.

The functionality of sending notification from the blind person to the

guardian was tested by pressing button on the smart blind stick
which used to send notification which will appear to the account of
the guardian on mobile application.

Replying messages.

The functionality of replying the messages was tested where by the

relatives of the blind was testing to reply the message which was
sent by the blind person, The replied message was to inform other
relatives if the one relatives can go and pick up the blind person.

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 CHAPTER SEVEN: EVALUATION
7.1. COST ESTIMATION.
NO: DEVICE NAME: QUANTITY PRICE (Tshs)
1. Blind stick 1 26,000/=
2. Nodemcu 1 19,000/=
3. Ultrasonic Sensor 1 8,000/=
4. GPS 1 30,000/=
5. Buzzer 1 2000/=
6. Pin Button 1 1000/=
7. Switch 1 1000/=
8. Jump Wires 30 3000/=

Table 4: cost estimation.

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7.2. PROJECT TIMEFRAME.
The project is conducted in different four (4) months. April, May,
June and July 2022 as it shown in table below.

TIME LINE

ACTIVITIES 1April – 1May- 1June- 24

30April 31May July

Week 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 1st 2nd 3rd 4th

1 Writing
report.
2 Developing
smart stick.
3 Developing
mobile app.
4 Project
delivering
and testing.

Table 5: Project Timeframe.

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 CHAPTER EIGHT: CONCLUSSION.
8.1. CONCLUSSION.
In the end of the project we can conclude that our project can
decrease the number of risk and injuries for blind people when
walking at public. Also can easily help to blind person to be returned
on their residence by their guardians or relatives after being lost.
Also it will increase freedom for the blind people to walk
independently.
The smart blind stick leads good result in detecting the obstacles on
the path of the user in a range of 60 cm. Though the system is hard
wired with sensors and other components, its light in weight.
In the future, we hope that our project can be commercialize as there
are many benefit such as reduce the number of risk and injuries to
the blind people.
We hope we can improvise our project if there is a thing that can
make our product more quality than now.

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 REFERENCES.
Kapona Foundation & Lavelle Fund for the Blind, 2017 .
http://kuponafoundation.org/kupona-foundation-lavelle-fund-for-the-
blind-launch-partnership-for-sustainable-vision-care-in-tanzania/
#:~:text=Blindness%20and%20visual%20impairment%20in,and
%20visual%20impairment%20in%20Tanzania .

Modern Blind Stick, 2017.

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.

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