Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Intelligent Communication Technologies and Virtual Mobile Networks (ICICV 2021).

IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP21ONG-ART; 978-0-7381-1183-4

Low-Cost Smart Shoe for Visually Impaired

2021 Third International Conference on Intelligent Communication Technologies and Virtual Mobile Networks (ICICV) | 978-1-6654-1960-4/20/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ICICV50876.2021.9388432

M. Anisha S.Kirthika D.Jemimah Harline P. Thenmozhi

Department of Biomedical
Engineering
Kalasalingam Academy of
Research and Education,
Krishnankoil, Virdhunagar,
Tamilnadu-626126, India
anisha@klu.ac.in
Rubala.R
Department of Electronics
and communication
Engineering, Jeppiaar
Institute of
Technology,Sriperumpudur,
Kunnam,631604, India
Department of Biomedical
Engineering
Kalasalingam Academy of
Research and Education,
Krishnankoil, Virdhunagar,
Tamilnadu-626126, India
T. Girija Pragathi
Department of Biomedical
Engineering
Kalasalingam Academy of
Research and Education,
Krishnankoil, Virdhunagar,
Tamilnadu-626126,
Department of Biomedical
Engineering
Kalasalingam Academy of
Research and Education,
Krishnankoil, Virdhunagar,
Tamilnadu-626126, India
M.Benisha
Department of Electronics
and communication
Engineering, Jeppiaar
Institute of
Technology,Sriperumpudur,
Kunnam, 631604, India
Department of Biomedical
Engineering
Kalasalingam Academy of
Research and Education,
Krishnankoil, Virdhunagar,
Tamilnadu-626126, India
C. Jim Elliot
Department of Biomedical
Engineering
Kalasalingam Academy of
Research and Education,
Krishnankoil, Virdhunagar,
Tamilnadu-626126, India

Abstract— This work is carried out for the visually
impaired people to assist them in finding the obstacles.
They have major risk factors in migrating from one place
to another place individually. During the time of their
travel, it is very hard to find out the obstacles on their way.
Many accidents, injuries and collisions may occur during
their transportation as they are unaware of the obstacles
present in front of them. To overcome this project is
mainly focused on designing an electronically aided shoe
for the visually impaired people for their better
transportation. Currently, visually impaired people use a
stick as a tool for directing them when they move or walk.
Here, smart shoe is developed, other than blind stick being
more efficient and helpful than the conventional one. The
developed shoe will detect the objects or obstacles up to
certain distance and send an alert message to the receiver
in audio or vibrator form. This helps the blind people to
identify the object present on their way through an alarm
and avoid many discomforts
Keywords— Smart Shoe, Arduino Nano, Ultrasonic
Sensor, Buzzer, Visually Impaired
I. INT RODUCT ION
Blindness is defined as lacking the sense of light. The word
“blindness” indicates the disability of the person from
darkness to bright light. The term blind and blindness have
been modified into wide range of visual impairments. Visually
impaired people are get affected by the damage in their eyes
and the damage in the sensory organ to receive the signal from
the nerve of the brain. Visual impairments are due to the
genetic disorders. It is prominent by birth or during childhood.
Over 37 million people are blind all over the globe. In this 15
million people are from India. Most predicaments of the visual
impairment’s disabilities are due to the retinitis damage or
some of the development abnormalities in their life. Individual
are those visually impaired are facing problem with their
anatomical, sociable and methodical outcomes, hence the
individuality of life and dispossess such visually impaired
from fulfilling many of the activities of day-to-day life. Visual
impairments are a subjective term used when condition the
loss of visual field. The visual impairments can range from
moderate to relentless. About 300-400 million people were
visually impaired all around the world. Out of this 80% people
are totally blind at the age of 50. Moreover, totally blind
peoples were about 50 million.
Blindness has been categorized into different groups.
They were blindness of colour, blindness of night and
blindness of snow. Color blindness is due to the individual's
disability to distinguish between red and green colours. The
symptoms are poor vision, light sensitivity and it has inability
to identify the shades and similar color. Color blindness is
caused by about 8 percent of males and about 1 percent of
women who are affected. Owing to reduced light, night
blindness is. This form of blindness is either acquired or
hereditary. The real kind of blindness is not this kind of
blindness. Snow blindness due to the swelling of the eye ball
on the corneal surface and it is temporary type of blindness.
The symptoms are pain & burning in eyes, sensitivity to light,
blurred vision, swollen, red eyelids. If someone is in snow
blindness, they are not able to see the colors and they can
identify only shapes and movement of the people. There are
some of the basic risk factors for the blind people to live in the
society because they are tending to live in the third world
without any other help of medical instruments. The major risk

978-1-6654-1960-4/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE 1108

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Exeter. Downloaded on May 30,2021 at 09:05:54 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Intelligent Communication Technologies and Virtual Mobile Networks (ICICV 2021).
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP21ONG-ART; 978-0-7381-1183-4
factors for the blindness of the people are due to the immature
birth, bad nutrition and the failure to wear the defense glasses
include poor prenatal care, premature birth, advancing age,
poor nutrition, failing to wear safety glasses which indicate
bad hygiene and genetic form of diseases. The common
symptom of visual impairments is difficulty seeing. By nature,
one who is blind will not be able to see the world. There were
some visual impaired people during their life. They were able
to see the world with some help of the medical field.
In few literatures, some has done the valuable work in
making the detection of obstacles and to navigate the people.
They have designed a shoe for the visually impaired people to
navigate. In this they have implemented and attach the GPS in
the shoe to help the visually impaired people to travel by
hearing the audio signals from the headphones [1]. The white
canes are used to detect the obstacles from the user knee
covering only the little different. The system helped the user
by providing different audio tones to different conditions as
defined by the system. The system is most accurate and safely
[2]. They have designed the walking assistive devices for
blind may influence positively on gait of users by reliving
high pressure of foot during walking. The blind can be utilized
in various flied which can be the user can use the white cane
by reducing foot pressure [3]. They have been created that the
interaction of communication with each other. The device
would be helpful for the blind and deaf people individual for
communication with each other [4]. They have proposed the
method of design of the shoe for the visually impaired for
them so they can be easily identified and can be less collision
using the embedded system [5]. Another method of proposing
the stick is not reliable so they have proposed that the android
smart phone app for the blind people to find the obstacles by
the camera in the surrounding and gives an audio output. It is
very useful for blind people to walking in the travel pathway
[6]. They have proposed the method by using the slam
algorithm to solve localization and the virtual blind and avoid
obstacles. The sensors are embedded on the device which
helps the people for travelling from one place to another [7].
This is the simplified information to provide the high light to
navigate system to surrounding environment which provides
the user through vibration and audio feedback mechanism.
They have added the concept of embedded system with the
ultrasonic sensor and the vibrator [8]. They have implemented
user voice alert and pre-recorder speaker. By sending the
information to the visually challenged people by Bluetooth
which connected to headphones. The information was sent to
the user once the cane [9]. The method is designed with
mobile phones and haptic shoe. It gives information for blind
people by combining the status of the user walking and it will
send the correction direction for visually impaired people [11].
Another system was designed to the visually impaired person
who provides information about the environment analyzing
buzzer sound by a smart white cane. It was used to detect the
obstacles about three meters [13]. The ultrasonic sensor which
was used to detect the obstacles in front of the blind people
and sends the correction direction signal to the visually
impaired people [14]. The pair of infrared sensors can be
978-1-6654-1960-4/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE
Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Exeter. Downloaded on May 30,2021 at 09:05:54 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
detecting the obstacles to presence in the user pathway. But
this white cane is not more accurate and safety to detect the
obstacles for blind people or visually impaired people [15].
The visually impaired people would get the information about
the obstacles in the form of vibration and voice. The proposed
method would help the visually impaired people which act as
a small analyzer kit and that would use to detect the obstacles.
The method was the small and easily available to the users
[16]. A smart rehabilitate shoes and spectacles were developed
to the visually impaired people for their better navigation and
their mobility purpose to detect the obstacles. The main
purpose for the design was to help the visually impaired to
navigate from one place to another and it would be helpful for
the individual as eventual kid for the blind people [18].
II. NEED ANALYSIS
Blindness is a global crisis. The percentage of the blind
population keeps on increasing from the last past few years. It
happens due to cataract, refractive error, glaucoma, trachoma
and the other type of deficiency. So, from this it is obvious,
that the blindness is mostly increasing population among the
people.
Among people in India, blindness is the most common
problem. Color blindness, night blindness and snow blin dness
are different forms of blindness. In addition, for the next few
years, blindness will continue to rise. A statistical analysis was
performed, which conveys that from 2010 to 2050 the rate of
blindness will be steadily increased. Therefore, much care and
holistic effort should be taken to support their needs to lead a
normal life in society.
III. METHODOLOGY
The methodology us ed in this work detects the obstacles
which makes the buzzer to alert to assist the visually impaired
people thereby will help to navigate while travelling. To
measure the obstacles distance ultrasonic sensor was used.
Schematic representation of the proposed approach is
specified in Fig 1.
The input consists of two ultrasonic HC-SR04
sensors, which are used to detect obstacles. Ultrasonic sensors
are instruments that are used to determine the distance from
the target objects. The distance between the obstacles and the
blind individuals is measured using this ultrasound sensor. In
addition, an ultrasonic sensor is used to calculate distances of
approximately 5 metres. The ultrasound sensor is used to relay
the medium's waves. In this piezoelectric ultrasonic sensor
was used to generate the ultrasonic waves and used to transmit
and receive the signal once when the obstacles are detected.
By measuring the length of object from the transmission to
reception of the wave, it detects the position of the object and
sends the signal to the arduino nano.Ultrasonic sensor is not
highly affected by dust, dirt or high moisture environment.
Hence it functions well with all kind of environment. It gives
high accuracy compared to other methods at measuring
thickness & distance to a parallel surface. Owing to the high
frequency, sensitivity and penetrating power the sensor is easy
to detect the external obstruction. It has high efficiency and
1109
 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Intelligent Communication Technologies and Virtual Mobile Networks (ICICV 2021).
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP21ONG-ART; 978-0-7381-1183-4
accuracy to measure the obstacles from the target and give an
alarm. The control stage consists of Arduino nano. The
Arduino nano which receives signal from the ultrasonic sensor
and it would calculate the distance from object and the
visually impaired persons. The Arduino software is used to
program the Arduino nano. The Arduino nano receives the
distance of obstacles through the ultrasonic sensor, the
microcontroller has an integrated comparator that compares
the distance and reference distance of obstacles and then
produces an error as necessary. The signal from the sensor is
also received by the microcontroller.
Figure 1: Block Diagram of proposed method
The Arduino is designed in such a way that when error is
found outside the tolerance range and finally at the output
stage buzzers that sound when the object is detected outside
the tolerance range, it transfers the appropriate signal to the
motor and a piezo buzzer. By measuring the waves at a
frequency, the ultrasound sensor works, and then the sound is
reflected by determining the distance depending on the time
needed. Finally, the Arduino is attached to the sensor and the
software is encoded. The output of Arduino connected to the
buzzer. It notifies the visually impaired people.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Our application results enhance the understanding of the
problems facing blind people daily. In migrating from one to
another, there is a great need for electronic travel assistance
for visually impaired persons. The electronic travel aid will be
useful for them during the time of their travel to identify
obstacles on their route. And there are also incidents, injuries
and crashes to prevent. The combination of both hardware and
software, which is user-friendly, is a smart shoe for visually
disabled people. They will use our prototype, which is cost-
effective and easy to use.
978-1-6654-1960-4/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE
Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Exeter. Downloaded on May 30,2021 at 09:05:54 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Figure 2: Designed Shoe
Fig 2: Shows the buzzer and it’s control by the ultrasonic
sensor and arduino nano. The developed support system was
accurate in detecting the obstacles in the ground level and
alerting the visually impaired people. Smart shoe is very
useful for blind people in the travelling pathway .
V. CONCLUSION
The work proposed the design and architecture of a new
concept of smart shoe for blind people. The advantage of the
system lies in the fact that it can prove to be very low cost
solution to millions of blind person worldwide. All the
conceptual requirements are fulfilled by the planned model.
With the buzzer tone, the final output from the smart shoe
would easily be able to find the barriers. The findings are in
line with planned output. Smart shoes are useful for walking
on the road independently and safely. A blind man gets the
obstacles signal and falls through the buzzer sound. This
framework would empower those on the road to walk freely.
For every blind person, this overall smartness framework
proposed would be a better future. The smart shoe would also
help the visually impaired at a low cost. This can then be
applied on the embedded framework later on. It can be further
improved to have more decision taking capabilities by
employing varied types of sensors and thus could be used for
different application. It aims to solve the problems faced by
the blind people in their daily life. The system also takes
measures to enable their safety.
VI.FUTURE WORK
In future, it is planned to program and sense the obstacles
with more than 5m and buzzer can also be replaced by audio
sound so the blind person could acknowledge about the
obstructions clearly. With the most stable features, such as
transmitting information using IOT, the application may be
added. Later may try to introduce android application on the
smart shoe proposed system.
REFERENCES
[1] Manjunathan, A., and C. Bhuvaneshwari. "Designing of smart
shoe." Materials Today: Proceedings 21 (2020): 500-503.
1110
 Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Intelligent Communication Technologies and Virtual Mobile Networks (ICICV 2021).
IEEE Xplore Part Number: CFP21ONG-ART; 978-0-7381-1183-4
[2] Koli, Pooja S., Nikita Sunil Chavan, and Shraddha Gajanan Gaikar.
"Construction of Smart Shoe System for Visually Impaired People."
[3] Yang, Chang-Min, Ji-Yong Jung, and Jung-Ja Kim. "Effects of shoe-
type walking assistive device for the blind on gait characteristics: a pilot
study." International Journal of Biology and Biomedicine 4 (2019).
[4] Caporusso, Nicholas, Luigi Biasi, Giovanni Cinquepalmi, Gianpaolo
Francesco Trotta, Antonio Brunetti, and Vitoantonio Bevilacqua. "A
wearable device supporting multiple touch-and gesture-based languages
for the deaf-blind." In International Conference on Applied Human
Factors and Ergonomics, pp. 32-41. Springer, Cham, 2017.
[5] Soni, Arti, Sonal Rajput, Durgesh Verma, and Madhur Chauhan.
"Advanced Shoes For Visually Impaired.
[6] Mahesh, SD Asha, K. Raj Supriya, MVSSNK Pushpa Latha, P. Gowri,
T . Sonia, and B. Nani. "Smart assistive shoes and cane: solemates for the
blind people." International Journal of Engineering Science 16665
(2018).
[7] Bai, Jinqiang, Shiguo Lian, Zhaoxiang Liu, Kai Wang, and Dijun Liu.
"Virtual-blind-road following-based wearable navigation device for
blind people." IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics 64, no. 1
(2018): 136-143.
[8] Patil, Kailas, Qaidjohar Jawadwala, and Felix Che Shu. "Design and
construction of electronic aid for visually impaired people." IEEE
Transactions on Human-Machine Systems 48, no. 2 (2018): 172-182.
[9] Rajwani, Roshan, Dinesh Purswani, Paresh Kalinani, Deesha
Ramchandani, and Indu Dokare. "Proposed System on Object Detection
for Visually Impaired People." International Journal of Information
Technology (IJIT) 4, no. 1 (2018): 1-6.
[10] Bhowmick, Alexy, and Shyamanta M. Hazarika. "An insight into
assistive technology for the visually impaired and blind people: state-of-
the-art and future trends." Journal on Multimodal User Interfaces 11,
no. 2 (2017): 149-172.
[11] Xu, Qianli, T ian Gan, Shue Ching Chia, Liyuan Li, Joo-Hwee Lim, and
Phyoe Kyaw Kyaw. "Design and evaluation of vibrating footwear for
navigation assistance to visually impaired people." In 2016 IEEE
International Conference on Internet of Things (iThings) and IEEE
Green Computing and Communications (GreenCom) and IEEE Cyber,
978-1-6654-1960-4/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE
Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Exeter. Downloaded on May 30,2021 at 09:05:54 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Physical and Social Computing (CPSCom) and IEEE Smart Data
(SmartData), pp. 305-310. IEEE, 2016.
[12] Gori, Monica, Giulia Cappagli, Alessia T onelli, Gabriel Baud-Bovy, and
Sara Finocchietti. "Devices for visually impaired people: High
technological devices with low user acceptance and no adaptability for
children." Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 69 (2016): 79-88.
[13] Gbenga, Dada Emmanuel, Arhyel Ibrahim Shani, and AdebimpeLateef
Adekunle. "Smart Walking Stick for visually impaired people using
ultrasonic sensors and Arduino." International Journal of Engineering
and Technology 9, no. 5 (2017): 3435-3447.
[14] Liu, Yi-Qing, Zhi-Kai Gao, Zhang-Jian Shao, and Gu-Yang Liu.
"Intelligent ultrasonic detection of walking sticks for the blind." In 2017
9th International Conference on Electronics, Computers and Artificial
Intelligence (ECAI), pp. 1-4. IEEE, 2017.
[15] Nada, Ayat A., Mahmoud A. Fakhr, and Ahmed F. Seddik. "Assistive
infrared sensor based smart stick for blind people." In 2015 Science and
Information Conference (SAI), pp. 1149-1154. IEEE, 2015.
[16] Hoang, Van-Nam, Thanh-Huong Nguyen, Thi-Lan Le, T hanh-Hai Tran,
T an-Phu Vuong, and Nicolas Vuillerme. "Obstacle detection and
warning system for visually impaired people based on electrode matrix
and mobile Kinect." Vietnam Journal of Computer Science 4, no. 2
(2017): 71-83.
[17] Diamantatos, Paraskevas, and Ergina Kavallieratou. "Android based
electronic travel aid system for blind people." In IFIP International
Conference on Artificial Intelligence Applications and Innovations, pp.
585-592. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2014.
[18] Abu-Faraj, Ziad O., Elie Jabbour, Paul Ibrahim, and Anthony Ghaoui.
"Design and development of a prototype rehabilitative shoes and
spectacles for the blind." In 2012 5th International Conference on
BioMedical Engineering and Informatics, pp. 795-799. IEEE, 2012.
1111