Proposing a smart and intelligent system to assist the blind community based on advance technologies

Abstract

Blind community or visually impaired persons have limited access and capabilities to participate in the society equally thus resulting in isolation of the blind community. The problem of blindness is more prominent under desert climatic conditions due to sand storms, dry and harsh environment. In Saudi Arabia, the problem of blindness is more common among the nomads living under open temporary houses. This study proposed a smart and intelligent system based on multi advance technologies such as Wireless Sensor Network (WSN), Radio Frequency Identification tags (RFID), Global Positioning System (GPS), speech guidance and map navigation to help and assist the blind community under controlled conditions such as within campus or community. The proposed smart and intelligence system will help blind community to engage into community by providing the feel and fun of participating with real routine life. The average speed for NPT, BPT, VIB and VIA was 0.58, 0.22, 0.29 and 0.39, respectively for both inside and outside building locations. The proposed AMAT system improved the access time for VIA and VIB groups by only 33 and 17%, respectively. The proposed system showed a significant performance by the visually impaired persons for efficiently reaching to targeted locations by avoiding obstacles smoothly. © 2013 Asian Network for Scientific Information.