Enhanced White Cane for Visually Impaired People

Abstract

According to WHO(World Health Organization)statistics, around 285 billion people in the world have visual impairment. They find difficulty in doing their everyday tasks and detecting objects in front of them that can be harmful to them. As a solution to this problem, we introduce a White Cane (Smart Stick) system for assisting visually impaired people. The White Cane comes as a proposed solution to help visually impaired people to detect obstacles and investigate dangers in the world around while walking. The system is designed to act like an artificial vision and alarm unit. It consists of ultrasonic, light, and water sensors, in addition to the microcontroller (Arduino Uno), to receive the sensors signals and process them to short pulses to the Arduino pins where buzzer, vibrator, and blue LED areconnected. Moreover, GPS-GSM module is utilized to send SMS location messages to a helper phone when a person gets lost and doesn’t know where to go. We seek in our project to provide a helpful service with affordable price.

Full text

Journal of Applied Computer Science & Mathematics, Issue 2/2018, vol.12, No. 26, Suceava
9
Enhanced White Cane for Visually Impaired People
1Maymounah A. ALSHAJAJEER, 2Maryam T. ALMOUSA,
3Qasem Abu AL-HAIJA
1,2 Biomedical Engineering Department,32 Electrical Engineering Department
King Faisal University, Ahsa, 31982, P.O. 380, Saudi Arabia
1maymounah.ash@gmail.com, 2 Maryam.Taqi.1995@hotmail.com, 3Qalhaija@kfu.edu.sa
Abstract–According to WHO (World Health Organization)
statistics, around 285 billion people in the world have visual
impairment. They find difficulty in doing their everyday tasks
and detecting objects in front of them that can be harmful to
them. As a solution to this problem, we introduce a White Cane
(Smart Stick) system for assisting visually impaired people. The
White Cane comes as a proposed solution to help visually
impaired people to detect obstacles and investigate dangers in
the world around while walking. The system is designed to act
like an artificial vision and alarm unit. It consists of ultrasonic,
light, and water sensors, in addition to the microcontroller
(Arduino Uno), to receive the sensors signals and process them
to short pulses to the Arduino pins where buzzer, vibrator, and
blue LED are connected. Moreover, GPS-GSM module is
utilized to send SMS location messages to a helper phone when a
person gets lost and doesn’t know where to go. We seek in our
project to provide a helpful service with affordable price.
Keywords: White Cane, Ultrasonic Sensor, Visually impaired
people, Arduino Uno
I. INTRODUCTION
Healthcare is a field that has been showing great advances
with the help of growing technological innovations. Use of
information technology in the field of medicine has proven
that it can be utilized for the development of alternatives for
people with disabilities. For instance, programmable single-
chip microcontrollers with essential kits integrated with user
interfaces provide an amazing set of tools and platform to
build digital devices that can sense and control the objects in
the physical world. Likewise, we can use the available tools
and technologies to develop devices that can help people with
physical disabilities.
One example is the use of Arduino technology in the
construction of a white cane that can be used by people
suffering from blindness and help them overcome the
drawbacks of this condition. In this project, we used the
power of Arduino along with sensors to construct a simple
white cane that can detect obstacles (solid bodies), water, and
light, and use a sound alarm (buzzer), vibrator, and LED as
outputs to warn the users. In addition, it uses a GPS-GSM
module to keep track of the user’s location. This cane can
improve the quality of the visually impaired people’s lives,
save efforts and time. The development of this project is
discussed in detail in the following sections.
The visually impaired people usually face many difficulties
when trying to interact with their environment. Physical
movement is a big challenge for them because it can become
tricky to distinguish where they are and how to move from
one place to another. When they need to do any physical
movement, they need to be guided by a sighted family
member or friend which limit their movement to the presence
of the helper. Moreover, they might have limited jobs which
will affect their financial level.
In order to provide a help and do good as Allah has been
good to us, we aim to design a white cane that can achieve
followings: Increase the autonomy of the visually impaired
people, detect obstacles and warn the visually impaired
people by different alarming units, sense the amount of light
and respond to darkness by automatically glowing blue LED
to help people suffering from Nyctalopia (Night Blindness),
detect water and other liquids in the floor and warn people by
vibrating the cane’s grip, and help people when they get lost
to send their location to the helper phone via SMS messages.
Eventually, based on white cane verification, we found that
this project would be more realistic and beneficial if some
problems is resolved such as: current ultrasonic sensor can
detect forward obstacles at around 1-meter-high above
ground level. We suggest a solution to design obstacle
detection unit with multiple ultrasonic sensors in which can
sense obstacles in different heights and angles, current liquid
sensor can sense water and other liquids having some sort of
salts, we suggest using sensor that can sense lubricity in the
floor such as oil existing, and current liquid board cannot
clean itself automatically. Therefore, there is a need of
manual cleaning otherwise the vibration motor will run until
board is cleaned by the user which will bother the user. We
suggest including automatic cleaning feature to this unit to be
more affective.
II. DESIGN REQUIREMENTS
In order to accomplish this project, one should have
familiarity of microcontrollers basics, practical hardware
issues, Arduino programming language and simulation
platform interaction.
DOI: 10.4316/JACSM.201802001

Computer Science Section
10
Fig.1. The block diagram of the White Cane System.
Also, the project required the use of several software
packages such as Arduino IDE software, Fritzing simulation
software, Microsoft Office (Word + PowerPoint). Finally, the
core part of the proposed design is the list of hardware
equipment used to accomplish the proposed design as shown
in Fig.1.
III. MICROCONTROLLER UNIT (ARDUINO UNO R3
MICROCONTROLLER)
Arduino can interact with the environment by receiving
input signals (Digital/Analog) and sending output signals to
control lights, relays and other devices. The microcontroller
can be programmed using Arduino software. Also, the board
was supplied with 9-volt battery using the two poles header.
A) Obstacles and Dangers Detection Unit
This unit consists of three sensors, as follows:
 Ultrasonic Sensor: Ultrasonic sensor is used to
determine the distance of any obstacle in front of it. HC-
SRC04 ultrasonic sensor has 4 pins; Gnd (Ground), Vcc
(Voltage Common Collector), Trig (Trigger) and Echo.
Mainly it has two openings; one is transmitter which is
used to transmit the signal and the other one is receiver
which is used to receive the signal. It sends ultrasound
waves at high frequency and receives back the signal as
Echo. The basic working principle of the ultrasonic
sensor is as illustrated below:
 Using IO trigger for at least 10 µs high level signal.
 The module automatically sends eight 40 kHz and
detects whether there is a pulse signal back.
 If the signal back, through high level, time of high
output IO duration is the time from sending
ultrasonic to returning. Test distance = high level
time x velocity of sound (340 M/S) / 2
 Raindrops Sensor Module: A water sensor is located at
the base of the cane to have precaution against the wet
surface which can cause slipping on the floor and thus
hurt. When the water sensor encounters the wet surface,
it produces an electrical signal that triggers the Arduino
controller. This module allows you measure moisture via
analog output pins and it provides a digital output when a
threshold of moisture is exceeded. It includes the
electronics module and a printed circuit board that
collects the rain drops. As raindrops or liquids are
collected on the circuit board, they create paths of
parallel resistance that are measured via the op-amp. The
lower the resistance (or the more water), the lower the
voltage output. Conversely, the less water, the greater
the output voltage on the analog pin. A completely dry
board, for instance, will cause the module to output 5V
[1].
 LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) or Photocell: Its
resistance value changes inversely with the light
intensity. Therefore, during night or in low light
intensity, LDR will have high resistance and no current
will pass through it, but through a LED connected
parallel to it. The LED will illuminate and acts as a
Flashlight that can help the people suffering from Night
Blindness.

B) Alarming Unit
The person is informed through a vibrator and a beep
sound of buzzer. It consists of two parts:
 Buzzer: A transducer (converts electrical energy into
mechanical energy) that typically operates. A buzzer is
in the lower portion of the audible frequency range of 20
Hz to 20 kHz. Buzzer is used to warn the blind person
against obstacles by generating sound proportional to the
distance of obstacle.
 Vibration Motor: A vibration motor is included to
enhance the overall feedback for the person who receives
the warning if there is any water or liquid on the floor.
 Light Emitter Diode (LED): Is a two-lead
semiconductor light source. It is a p–n junction diode
that emits light when activated. It is used to help the
people who had night blindness while they are walking
in dark places.
C) Global Positioning System (GPS) Unit
When person gets lost and he/she couldn’t realize where is
he/she, this unit can navigate the place and send SMS
messages to helper’s phone to reach him/her. The complete
system is connected to Arduino Uno R3 consisting of the
following components:
 Push button+ Resistor: It is used to turn ON the GPS
Module, which start fixing the location by searching for
the latitude and longitude.
 Adafruit FONA 808 Module: This Global Positioning
System and Global System for Mobile (GPS-GSM)
shield fits right over Arduino. It is an all-in-one cellular
phone module which is adapted to add location tracking,
voice, text, SMS and data to projects. More
specifications about the module in [2] (Fig.11).
 Lithium Ion Polymer Battery-3.7V 1200mAh: It is
required to power FONA808 since this module needs
more power to be well functional as Arduino supply is
not sufficient to operate GPS & GSM modules.

Journal of Applied Computer Science & Mathematics, Issue 2/2018, vol.12, No. 26, Suceava
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 Passive GPS Antenna uFL 9mm x 9mm: It is required
to strengthen the GPS signal in its communication with
satellites to calculate longitude and latitude (get GPS).
 Slim Sticker-type GSM/Cellular Quad-band
Antenna: It is required to communicate with GSM
towers to be able to send SMS messages.
 2G SIM CARD: It is required to use the module can be
bought from STC or Mobily cell phone shop (It is
required for FONA808 to work–no exceptions!).

IV. PROPOSED SYSTEM SIMULATION AND PROTOTYPING
The complete system hardware design schematic diagram
is shown in Fig. 2. The design is accomplished by connecting
all aforementioned units together such as Arduino MCU,
Obstacles and Dangers Detection Unit, Alarming Unit, and
GPS/GSM Unit as well as the power supply unit. In addition,
Fig.3. shows the actual prototype including all-in-one
package along with the stick.
The simulation can help experiment the construction and
working of a circuit before building a more permanent
circuit. This is done with the help of electronic design
automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-
aided design. EDA is a category of software tools for
designing electronic systems such as integrated circuits
and printed circuit boards [4].
Fig.2. Hardware Schematic Diagram the complete detection and respond
unit as well as the GPS/GSM Unit.
Fig.3. The actual prototype
Whereas the model is a representation of the system itself,
the simulation represents the operation of the system over
time [3]. There are different programs available that provide
the facility of automated circuit designing and simulation
such as Fritzing [6], Electric [7], FreePCB [8], gEDA suite
[9], KiCAD suite [10], KTechLab [11], LibrePCB [12],
Proteus [13].
In this project, we have used Fritzing. Fritzing is an open
source Electronic Design Automation software to develop
designs and layouts of electronics projects and circuitry to
help students, designers, artists, do-it-yourself-practitioners
step ahead from experimenting with prototype to constructing
the actual physical and more permanent circuit of the desired
project. The input metaphor is inspired by the environment of
designers (the breadboard-based prototype), while the output
is focused on accessible means of production [6].
GSM-GPS module

Computer Science Section
12
V. DESIGN TESTING AND VERIFICATION
The design of the white cane is based on using different
sensors that can feel and interact with the environment and
then provide different responses that can help the visually
impaired people. Following are the used sensors in the white
cane with their responses:
 The Ultrasonic Sensor: When the ultrasonic sensor is
placed in front of any obstacle, it turns the buzzer ON in
three different sound rhythms, as illustrated in fig.4 and as
follows:
At (100 cm >= distance > 75 cm) the buzzer produces faint
sound rhythm.
At (75 cm >= distance > 50 cm)  the buzzer produces
medium sound rhythm.
At (50 cm >= distance > 0 cm)  the buzzer produces
high sound rhythm.
 The Photocell Sensor: When the switch is turned ON,
the photocell starts sensing the amount of light in the
room and the LED responses will be based on the amount
of light as shown in Fig.5.a: (1) When the amount of light
is low, blue LED will be turned ON, and, (2) When the
amount of light is high, blue LED will be turned OFF.
 The Water Sensor: When the switch is turned ON, the
water sensor starts sensing the presence of water in the
ground and responses of the vibration motor will be based
on the presence or absence of water as shown in Fig.5.b:
(1) In the presence of water, the vibration motor will be
turned ON, and (2) In the absence of water, the vibration
motor will be turned OFF.
VI. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION/FUTURE WORK
The white cane constructed in this project can be of
immense help for people with low vision or complete
blindness and solve their daily-life problems.
It will act as the third eye for them keeping them safe from
possible accidents and hazards using several working units
consisting of a variety of sensor modules and warning them
to divert from their way in case of danger through a variable
output unit consisting of buzzer (alarm), vibrator and LED.
Fig.4. the buzzer responses according to the obstacle distances.
Fig.5. The responses of (a) LED to the amount of light (b). Vibration
motor to the water.
 The GPS-GSM Module: The module is controlled by the
push button, so when the button is pressed, the location of
the cane will be sent via SMS message, as shown in Fig.6
shows the GPS generation process and the sent SMS
message.
Fig.6. (a) The GPS Module working system (b) The location SMS
message.

Journal of Applied Computer Science & Mathematics, Issue 2/2018, vol.12, No. 26, Suceava
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It will also help other people (family and relatives) to track
the position or location of the user in case of emergency or
danger.
This cane proves to be not only effective but affordable as
well and can serve millions of people around the world by
providing a low-cost, reliable, portable, low power
consumption, and robust solution to an intense problem.
This project can further be improved to increase its
decision taking capabilities by using some other sensors such
as infrared sensor to measure the heat of an object and detect
motion and thermistor as a fire sensor. Also, the application
of wireless connectivity between the system components can
enhance the range of ultrasonic sensor. Lastly, the use of
VLSI technology to design PCB can help make this system
more compact.
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Maymounah Alshajajeer is a senior student of Biomedical Engineering Department at King Faisal University. She is excellent in both
languages Arabic and English. Her research interests include (but not limited to): Biomedical engineering, Microcontroller and Electronic
Design.
Maryam Taqi is a senior student of Biomedical Engineering Department at King Faisal University. She is excellent in both languages
Arabic and English. Her research interests include (but not limited to): Biomedical engineering, Microcontroller and Electronic Design.
Qasem Abu Al-Haija is a senior lecturer of Electrical and Computer Engineering at King Faisal University. Eng. Abu Al-Haija received
his B.Sc. in ECE from Mu’tah University in Feb-2005 and M.Sc. in computer engineering from Jordan University of Science & Technology
in Dec-2009. His current research Interests: Information Security & Cryptography, Microcontrollers, Coprocessor & FPGA design,
Computer Arithmetic, Wireless Sensor Networks.