A navigation tool for blind people

Abstract

This paper describes the development of a navigation aid in order to assist blind and visually impaired people to navigate easily, safely and to detect any obstacles. The system is based on a microcontroller with synthetic speech output. In addition, it consists of two vibrators, two ultrasonic sensors mounted on the user's shoulders and another one integrated into the cane. This aid is able to give information to the blind about urban walking routes and to provide real-time information on the distance of over-hanging obstacles within six meters along the travel path ahead of the user. The suggested system consists then in sensing the surrounding environment via sonar sensors and sending vibro-tactile feedback to the user of the position of the closest obstacles in range. For the ultrasonic cane, it is used to detect any obstacle on the ground. © 2007 Springer.