MYSURU: Moved by the plight of visually impaired individuals who struggle with potholes and obstacles on roads, four engineering students from Mysuru have devised an automated walking stick for them. The low-cost, reliable, portable, low power consuming stick gives a robust solution for navigating obstacles, which boosts their confidence when they step out of the comfort of their home.
With an aim to help visually impaired individuals navigate swiftly, identify potholes and obstacles in crowded places, four students of Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering (VVCE) in Mysuru devised the automated cane with a short response time.
Smrithi Baliga and classmates Sapna H M, Shreyas N and Yogesh Gowda, who are pursuing electronics and communication engineering, came up with the device which uses ultrasonic sensors as the main feature. The stick is based on Internet of Things (IoT) with an obstacle and pothole detection system using sensors.
The ultrasonic sensor transmits a sound pulse at high frequency, and then measures the period to obtain the sound echo signal to mirror back. Existing smart blind sticks have obstacle and pothole detection, using ultrasonic sensor and digital image processing respectively, leading to a problem of delay. The stick devised by the students uses ultrasonic sensors for both obstacle detection and pothole detection, ensuring that alerts are timely.
The idea to develop a stick that helps the visually impaired reach their destinations safely, came up after Smriti Baliga, a third-year student who had been a scribe for a visually-challenged student for an exam, was intrigued by the problems they faced, especially while crossing roads.
The project was implemented under the guidance of Dr Chandrashekar M Patil, Professor and Head of Department of ECE, and Girijamba D L, Assistant Professor, Department of ECE at Vidyavardhaka College Of Engineering.
Affordable, easy to use
“During an interaction with my schoolteacher two years ago, we discussed working on a project to help the visually challenged. Concerned for their safety, we had interacted with kids during that time. After my friend Smrithi discussed her concern about the safety of the visually impaired, we came up with an idea of an automated stick for them. We started with our research as soon as two other teammates obliged,” said Sapna.
As we researched for the project, we realised the stick must be made affordable for all, considering financial constraints. During our exploration of the possible methods, we found that although image processing could be used, there were cost constraints and delay in detection, so we decided to deploy ultrasonic sensors for obstacle and pothole detection. It was approved by our team and guide, she added.
“The stick is cost-effective and suitable for people of all age groups, and is also lightweight,” said Smrithi.
“We were determined to implement this project as our personal interest, in case this was not possible under an academic setting. Fortunately, our project guides and college approved the project after we presented the idea. The project was completed in three phases over a span of four months. Presentation of the synopsis and cost estimation took us one month. For the next one-and-half months, we did the coding, mounting and threshold checks on the stick. We took another one-and-half months to work on the model.”
Shreyas N, who did the coding, said, “I used Arduino IDE, with the threshold values provided by my friends. We are planning to improvise voice outputs of the stick, and also make the stick more accessible to children aged below 18 years, by making the length of the stick adjustable.”
According to Yogesh Gowda V, who was in charge of design and implementation, “While referring to research papers relating to the project, we found that the sticks were heavier, which makes them hard to use. We ensured that the stick we designed was lighter and easily portable. I am happy that we were able to achieve what we proposed in the project.”
VVCE Principal Sadashivegowda said, “In recent times, technology has helped improve healthcare across the world. Through this project, our students have proved how technology could be used to help the visually challenged. This automated stick helps them move freely with confidence.”