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International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science

( Peer-Reviewed, Open Access, Fully Refereed International Journal )
Volume:04/Issue:02/February-2022 Impact Factor- 6.752 www.irjmets.com
A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY ON SMART STICK FOR VISUALLY

IMPAIRED PEOPLE
S.Yogesh*1
*1PG Student, Department of Data Science and Business Systems, SRM Institute of Science and
Technology (SRMIST) Kattankulathur, Chennai, Tamilnadu, India.
ABSTRACT
This paper describes a smart cane with an alarm to help visually impaired individual when they move in unease
paths. A growing number of people are experiencing challenges and problems in their daily lives as a result of
their visual impairment. In unstructured circumstances, walking with ease and confidence is considered one of
their challenges. In order to address this problem, a novel electronic stick with RF remote transmitter and
receiver that uses an ultrasonic sensor and buzzer has been designed. If there are any impediments or items in
front of the visually impaired person's walking route, an ultrasonic sensor is capable of detecting them. The
distance between the visually impaired person and a barrier is calculated using an ultrasonic sensor. There is
an alert if the estimated distance falls inside the provided range. The use of an RF remote allows visually
impaired people to locate their electronic stick. Many experiments have been carried out in a variety of
locations by a larger number of people in order to examine and ensure the correctness of an electronic stick,
and the results have been satisfactory.
I. INTRODUCTION
People who are visually impaired are unable to see items with their own eyes. According to statistics, around
290 million individuals are blind. According to [1, 2], 40 million of them are completely blind, while 250 million
have very poor vision. The World Health Organization (WHO) has also said in [2] that roughly 85 percent of
total blind people live in poor countries such as India. According to reports, India is home to roughly one-third
of the world's visually impaired individuals [2, 3] and also estimates that by 2020, the number of visually
impaired persons will have doubled. WHO tries to prevent blindness by providing a variety of tactics and
initiatives and also plans to take actions in many poor countries. WHO has begun a global strategy for universal
eye health for the years 2014-2019, as described in [4]. Many eye health groups also take action on a regular
basis to help their own people safeguard their eyes and recover from blindness. In India, there are around 15
million visually impaired persons. Despite the fact that India need 40 thousand optometrists, it only has 8
thousand, accounting for roughly 23% of the total required. Every year, India requires 2.5lakh eye donations,
but only receives about 25,000. In India, there are approximately 110 eye banks, however this number is
insufficient.
There are a variety of causes for blindness, but the most common is refractive error, which affects a large
number of people. As a result, people's blindness problems are greatly reduced through the use of electronic
devices that produce excellent results. The major component that visually impaired people utilise when
walking in unstructured or uncomfortable environments/paths is the stick. Initially, the stick was made of
wood or plastic to assist visually impaired persons when walking outside. Because technology is continuously
advancing, the stick now includes an electronic component to assist the blind person with more accuracy. The
term "smart stick" refers to a stick that contains electronic components.
Many studies on smart sticks have been conducted, as stated in [5-7, 8, 10, 11]. The term "white cane" refers to
a cane that is completely white in colour and is used to describe exclusively visually impaired persons [5].
Because technology is rapidly advancing, the cane now has multiple sensors to deliver precise results and to
measure distance between the visually impaired and an object. Ultrasonic, infrared (IR), and light dependent
resistor (LDR) sensors are among the sensors found in many smart sticks [6-12]. Ultrasonic sensors are the
most popular among these sensors and are also included in many smart canes because to their accuracy, ease of
use, and low cost. It determines the distance between visually impaired people and a potential hazard. Other
than ultrasonic sensors and a variety of other sensors, smart canes can use a variety of technologies to provide
extremely accurate results for visually impaired persons. When walking out, the smart cane's Bluetooth
integration greatly aids visually challenged people. Also, a global positioning system (GPS) is utilised in smart
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canes to tell where the visually impaired person is and to notify family members of the blind person's current
location when they are outside. IIT Delhi recently undertook and completed an experiment using Ultrasonic
sensors in a smart cane [12]. This smart cane provides a number of benefits as well as some drawbacks. This
stick can detect the distance between an obstacle and a visually impaired person, as well as provide alerts to
visually impaired persons. In extremely noisy surroundings, hearing vibration is quite difficult. There is no help
for visually impaired people who misplace their stick or unintentionally drop their smart cane. The above
mentioned experiment has certain drawbacks as well.
Section 2 contains a proposed system that eliminates the limitations of the previous trials and incorporates
additional benefits into the smart cane for visually impaired people. Real-time tests in unfavourable pathways
make up Section 3. The suggested experiment's conclusion is presented in Section 4.
II. METHODOLOGY
Smart cane, a system that provides buzzer alerts to visually impaired persons, has been developed in this
suggested system, and its benefits are as follows:
 With this suggested Stick, visually impaired people can compute the distance between an obstacle and
themselves.
 The stick may also identify an object/obstacle from a distance of up to 20 metres
 When the computed distance falls within the fixed range, the signal is sent to the 433MHz microcontroller.
 This stick can warn visually impaired people by using a buzzer to give them a warning.
 Using an RF transmitter and remote, the proposed system also overcomes the limitations of the above-
mentioned experiment.
 A light dependent resistor (LDR) is also used in this proposed system to assess the light intensity around the
blind individual.
 This proposed stick is less expensive and extremely precise.
Microcontroller, Buzzer, Ultrasonic sensors, RF transmitter and receiver, and LDR are all included in the
suggested stick. Figure 1 depicts the flow chart for this suggested stick. When visually challenged people are
walking through unstructured roads, this designed stick is utilised to identify any items in front of them.
If the smart cane identifies any items in front of the visually impaired individual, it alerts them with a beeping
sound produced by a buzzer. When a person gets close to an object, the frequency of the sound increases. That
is, when the distance is short, the beeping sound is louder, and when the distance is long, the beeping sound is
quieter. Following that, there are brief descriptions of both hardware and software components.
Figure 1: Flow chart of the proposed system

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A. Hardware components:
1) Microcontroller
The main component, the Arduino UNO R3, is utilized for electronics and coding. This is most likely referred to
as the smart cane's main control unit, as seen in Fig. 3. This ATmega328 Arduino controller is quite durable,
and users can simply play with it, demonstrating its ease of use. It contains 14 digital input or output pins, six of
which can be utilized as PWM outputs. It also has 6 analogue pins and a quartz crystal with a frequency of
16MHz. 2KB SRAM memory and 1KB EEPROM memory are the memory components of the Arduino Uno.
There's also 32KB of flash memory on board. It comprises of a power socket that is connected to a USB port.
This serves as a power source, and it does so through the USB where it can be programmed and functioned
accordingly.
(a) (b)
Figure 2a: shows external view of cane used.
Figure 2b: shows close look of the cane used.
2) Sensors used
Ultrasonic and LDR sensors were employed in this experiment. The HC-SR04, also known as standard sensor, is
an ultrasonic sensor used in this model. It recognises an object and determines the distance between the
visually impaired person and the object.
An ultrasonic sensor can detect an object from a distance of 20cm to 400cm, and many advanced ultrasonic
sensors can detect objects up to 20 metres. As a result, ultrasonic sensors provide precise findings.
An ultrasonic sensor has a frequency range of 20 kHz. When it detects an obstacle in the blind person's route, it
calculates the distance, and if the estimated distance is less than the set threshold, signals are sent to the
microcontroller, which produces the beeping sound. LDR is used to determine whether or not a blind person is
alone in a dark room, as well as whether or not it is a day.
3) RF Transmitter and Receiver
The 433MHz RF transmitter and receiver employed here has a frequency range of 3KHz to 300GHz. It is mostly
used to locate a blind person's smart cane when he or she drops it while going out. It's simply referred to as an
RF remote. When a blind person presses the RF transmitter, the signal is sent across the air to the receiver,
which is built into the smart stick. After that, it begins to beep. That person will be able to find the stick on his
own this manner.
B. Software component
Arduino IDE 1.6.8 software is used to perform programming operation. Since it is robust any user can use it and
perform code in it. USB is used for programming part and dumping that coding into the Arduino uno.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Ultrasonic sensors are used in real-time trials to test the proposed systems. Using the Arduino IDE to dump the
desired code. Testing using the ultrasonic sensor is now possible. We must first use ultrasonic to determine the
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estimated value, and then use some standards to determine the measured values. Then, using tabular form, we
must compare the two and identify the error. The comparison is shown in the following Table.1 between
ultrasonic sensor's observed and computed value.
Table 1: Depicts comparison of measured and calculated values.
Distance Analog value Analog value error
(cm) calculated measured
(mV) (mV)
5 25 23.8 1.2
10 50 48.1 1.9
15 75 72.3 2.7
20 100 96.3 3.7
30 150 145.8 4.2
40 200 194.3 5.7
50 250 243.6 6.4
75 375 367.0 8.0
100 500 489.8 10.2
150 750 735.3 14.7
200 1000 981.1 18.9
300 1500 1468.2 31.8
To test the ability of the smart cane, a greater number of trials were conducted in many different paths by a
greater number of people. Based on the results of this test, we can conclude that the smart cane provides great
precision and alerts visually impaired persons when an object is in front of them. The following are some of the
test photocopies:
(a)
(b)

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(c)
Figure 3: (a) There is no item in front of a Person (b) An item is in the way of that person and it warns by
alarming. (c) After hearing alarm sound that individual avoids messing.
(a) (b)
(c)
Figure 4: It is observed with different people in different locations. (a) Distance between an item and an
individual is more enough (b) when target is closer and it starts alarming (c) After indicating, individual avoids
collision.
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These tests show that this stick may deliver excellent results and is suited for a wide range of users on a variety
of difficult paths. This smart cane produces precise results while also being less expensive.
IV. CONCLUSION
This technology demonstrates that the smart cane's mobility and precision for visually impaired people has
improved. The project's major goal is to enable visually impaired to identify objects in front of them, allowing
them to walk with ease and confidence on difficult roads while also ensuring their safety.
V. REFERENCES
[1] C.E. Terry et al., “National Disability Policy: A Progress Report,” National Council on Disability,
Washington DC, USA, Oct 2016.
[2] “A report on visual impairment and blindness,” World Health Organization, Aug 2014.
[3] K. Li, “Electronic travel aids for blind guidance,” An Industry Landscape Study IND ENG 290 Project
Report, EECS, UC Berkeley, USA, 2015.
[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/white_cane
[5] I. Ulrich and J. Borenstein, “The guide cane-applying mobile robot technologies to assist the visually
impaired,” IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics-Part A: Systems and Humans, vol. 31,
no. 2, pp. 131-136, 2001.\
[6] M.H.A. Wahab, A.A. Talib, et al., “Smart cane: Assistive cane for visually-impaired people,” IJCSI
International Journal of Computer Science Issues, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 21-27, 2011.
[7] S. Adhe, S. Kunthewad, P. Shinde and V.S. Kulkarni, “Ultrasonic smart stick for visually impaired
people,” IOSR Journal of Electronics and Communication Engineering, pp. 11-15, 2015.
[8] http://assistech.iitd.ernet.in/smartcane.php
[9] M. Varghese, S.S. Manohar, et al., “The smart guide cane: An enhanced walking cane for assisting the
visually challenged,” in Proc. of the International Conference on Technologies for Sustainable
Development, Mumbai, India, Feb 4-6, 2015.
[10] A. Bhokare, A. Amberkar, A. Gawde, P. Kale, and A. Pasi, “Ultrasonic blind walking stick,” Int. J. on
Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Comm., vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 62-65, 2016.
[11] Central Michigan University, “ The Smart Cane”, 2009.
[12] Mohd Helmy Abd Wahab, Amirul A. talib, Herdawatie A. Kadir ,“Smart Cane: Assistive Cane for Visually-
impaired People” IJCSI International Journal of Computer Science Issues, Vol. 8, Issue 4, No 2., 2011.
[13] lejandro R. Garcia Ramirez, Renato Fonseca Livramento da Silva, Milton Jose Cinelli Alejandro Durán
Carrillo de Albornoz, “Evaluation of Electronic Haptic Device for Blind and Visually Impaired People”
Journal of Medical and Biological Engineering, Vol.32, No.6, 423-428, 2012.
[14] Joao jose, Miguel Farrajota, Joao M.F. Rodrigues, J.M. Hans du Buf , “The smart vision local navigation
aid for blind and visually impaired persons”, International journal of digital content and technology,
Vol. 5., 2011.
[15] Ayush Wattal, Ashuthosh Ojha, Manoj Kumar “Obstacle Detection Belt for Visually Impaired Using
Raspberry Pi and Ultrasonic Sensors” Department of Information Technology JSSATE, Noida, India.
National Conference on Product Design (NCPD 2016), July 2016.

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e-ISSN: 2582-5208

International Research Journal of Modernization in Engineering Technology and Science

A COMPREHENSIVE SURVEY ON SMART STICK FOR VISUALLY

Figure 1: Flow chart of the proposed system

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