Electronic guiding stick to assist the visually challenged

Abstract

Nowadays, Blind people use a stick as a tool for guiding their pathway when they walk or move away from their places. This paper introduces obstacles avoidance by using an 'electronic stick' with Infra Red (IR) sensors. The sensor has experimented successfully and which has detected the obstacles present along the pathway of the blind people in the range of approximately 100 - 550 cm. This designed system will have longer distance of obstacles detection unlike existing systems. The IR beams will be reflected back from the obstacles and detected by photo detector of the sensor, which has activates the buzzer and vibrator to produce an alarm and vibration respectively apart from these stick has mode selector switch to select either an alarm, vibration or both by this way the blind person will choose the safer path. This guiding stick has designed small, reliable and light weight to carry, in order to make blind people more comfortable and to improve their quality of life. © 2013 Springer-Verlag.