VOICE BASED GUIDANCE STICK AND ROUTER FOR THE

VISUALLY IMPAIRED PEOPLE WITH MODERN GPS

TECHNOLOGY.
R.ARCHANA
Abstract
An embedded system is a special purpose computer system designed to perform a
dedicated function. Using embedded system we are developing a voice based guidance stick
and router for the blind with GPS. The I sensor and Ultrasonic sensor are used to detect the
obstacles and collision warning system. The signals from the sensor are directly given to the
microcontroller which is pre!programmed to monitor the data continuously from the sensor
and GPS. The places are pre!programmed in the GPS modem using "P#A$ software. The
voices are recorded manually which indicates the obstacle% turning points% source and
destination place. &hen the obstacle and pre!programmed places are detected the voice chip
delivers the voice information through the earphone to the visually impaired people. The
keypad is used to choose the places and to guide the person through voice information. This
system is designed in a way to help the visually impaired people to protecting them from the
obstacles and to guide them in a safe manner.
Ke!"r#s$ GPS modem% embedded system% 'oice chip% Ultrasonic and I sensors.
I%tr"#&ct'"%
$lind person(s lives and activities
are greatly restricted by loss of eyesight%
and can only walk in fi)ed paths that are
necessary to their lives. *ven if all our
senses are fully functional and we are able
to concentrate to the navigation purpose% it
is difficult to solve all challenges in
unknown areas without the help of tools.
The blind long!cane remains the most
widely used travel aid among the visually
impaired people% whose number is +,
million and it is increasing by - million
each year according to a &orld .ealth
/rgani0ation1&./2report345.The blind
navigation systems are divided into indoor
and outdoor navigation system. In the
indoor navigation system obstacle
avoidance and virtual reality technology
are used. In this% machine learning
techni6ues to the task of inferring aspects
of the user(s state given a stream of inputs
from sensors worn by the person.
Integrating the information from the
diverse set of cheap% wearable sensors. The
task of interactively guiding the user to a
desired indoor destination. In outdoor
navigation technologies the techni6ues
include Geographic Information System
1GIS2% Global Positioning System 1GPS2%
radar% ultrasonic% speech and 7I8. An
integrated GPS and GIS navigation system
are proposed for positioning and tracking.
The 7I8 grid to be locali0ed in small
business% large corporate parks%
government buildings or college
campuses. Infrared 1I2 sensors are
e)tensively used for measuring distances.
They can be used in robotics for obstacle
avoidance. They have non!linear
characteristics and they depend on the
reflectance properties of the ob9ect
surfaces. I sensors using reflected light
density to estimate the distance from an
ob9ect. Ultrasonic sensors are useful for
measuring distances. It is useful under
conditions of poor lighting and transparent
ob9ects.
The area covered is in front of the
user and 9ust beyond the reach of the white
cane% such that the system can alert the
user to looming obstacles before his white
cane will touch : or miss : them. To this
purpose the user is e6uipped with a stereo
camera attached at chest height% a portable
computer% and only one earphone such that
normal ambient sounds are not blocked
3;5. The cost of detecting path borders and
the vanishing point% such that blind
persons can be instructed to correct their
heading direction on paths and in
corridors.
Descr'(t'"%
This Pro9ect deals with providing
voice based help for the blind people
which consists of a walking stick with an
embedded controller. .ere% US sensor can
play an important role in determining the
surface properties. The co!operation
between the US and I sensors are utili0ed
to create a complementary system that is
able to give reliable distance measurement.
The walking stick consists of a controller
with an I and Ultrasonic sensor which
will be interfaced with the microcontroller
and will continuously monitor the distance
between the blind person and any obstacle
which his<her is facing while walking. The
controller is programmed to continuously
monitor the data continuously from the
sensor and provide an appropriate
indication to the user. The blind person can
hear the output from the speaker which is
connected to the controller. And 4=,
keypad also using to get routing from
voice chip.
A location and tracking system
becomes very important to our future
world of pervasive computing% where
information is all around us. #ocation is
one of the most needed information for
emerging and future applications. Since
the public use of GPS satellite is allowed%
several state!of!the!art devices become
part of our life% e.g. a car navigator and a
mobile phone with a built!in GPS receiver.
.owever% location information for indoor
environments is still very limited. Several
techni6ues are proposed to get location
information in buildings such as using a
radio signal triangulation% a radio signal
1beacon2 emitter% or signal fingerprinting.
Using GPS system is a new way of giving
location information to users. The GPS
values stores location information and
gives it to any GPS madam that is within a
pro)imity range which can be up to 4>!4,
meters for GPS systems. &e propose an
GPS!based system for navigation in a
building for blind people or visually
impaired. The system relies on the location
information on the tag% a userpsilas
destination% and a routing server where the
shortest route from the userpsilas current
location to the destination. The navigation
device communicates with the routing
server using GPS networks. &e build a
prototype based on our design and show
some results. &e found that there are some
delay problems in the devices which are
the communication delay due to the cold
start cycle of a GPS modem and the
voice delay due to the file transfer delay
from a ""? module. &e included a
motor and its output in the vibration form.
The person have to switch on the motor in
the traffic places because in traffic area the
person not able to hear the voice
information.
C")("%e%ts
*. GPS
The GPS antenna receives the
information from the satellite in the
fre6uency range 4,-,.+@"h0.The
signals are received and send to the
microcontroller through the serial port
for communication purpose. Serial
port transmits the information to the
microcontroller. If that person wants
to go particular place means .e<She
have to press the key in keypad. The
controller receives and transmits this
information to the GPS and it guides
the person by giving voice
information to the person for that
particular place. It tells take turns
left<right and obstacle information. It
is most helpful for the person to go for
a particular place with correct
information.
+. V"'ce C,'( I%ter-ace
&e are using AP AB>>% high
6uality voice recording and playback
solution. The voice playback capability in
the range of +>!B> seconds. It is user
friendly and has C voice outputs in chip. In
our pro9ect we are using two voice chip
interface. The voice is recorded manually
and the recorded voice will be played
when the information is obtained from the
microcontroller. The voices are obstacle is
in front% left side obstacle% right side
obstacle% turn left% and turn right% $"*
8ept.% #ibrary% and ?anteen and so on.
P?PA is basic personal tool for
physically challenged people. The system
can be used in any organi0ational
infrastructure with proper signal
conditions and &i!7i deployment planning
for better resolutions to have directional
vector information for the user and later
helps a person to navigate within the
organi0ation. It assists a person to reach to
specific location% within a building 3+5.
&eb!based maps support virtual and
live discovery of cities% provide spatial
information and improve orientation. To
properly access and view digital maps is
often challenging for this user group.
Therefore% a methodology based on
geographic information technologies is
developed to automatically generate a
te)tual spatial description of the map 1map
in words2 and a user specified interface
respecting the re6uirements of users with
visual impairment 3-5.
.. U/tras"%'c Se%s"r
Ultrasonic 1US2 sensors are
widely used to measure distances. Thus
they have provided a reliable source of
obstacle detections. Since they are not
vision!based% they are useful under
conditions of poor lighting and transparent
ob9ects. .owever% US sensors have
limitations due to their wide beam!width%
sensitivity to specular surfaces% and the
inability to discern ob9ects within >., m.
$ecause of the typical specular nature of
the US wave(s reflection% only reflecting
ob9ects that are almost normal to the
sensor acoustic a)is may be accurately
detected. The US sensors described in
have precision of less than 4 cm in
distance measurements of up to Bm.
.owever% the time of flight 1To72
measurement is the most accurate method
among the measurements used. This To7
is the time elapsed between the emission
and subse6uent collection of a US pulse
train traveling at the speed of sound% which
is appro)imately ;+> m<s% after reflection
from an ob9ect. 7or single measurement%
this causes large response time% for
e)ample% ;, ms for ob9ects placed Bm
away12.This ultrasonic sensor operates
with a pie0oelectric transducer as the
sound emitter and receiver as the sensor
consists of a transmitter and receiver that
are mounted in the same housing% where
the ob9ect acts as a sound reflector. The
principle by which ultrasonic sensors yield
measurements is that of evaluating the
time taken for the sound to travel between
transmission and reception. The integrated
controller computes the distance from the
echo time and the velocity of sound. The
transmitted pulse duration Dt and the
decay time of the sonic transducer result in
an unusable area in which the ultrasonic
sensor cannot detect an ob9ect% which is
about 4+,ms for this sensor. The ultrasonic
fre6uency that this sensor uses is +> k.0.
The time of travel of the sound pulse is
the means of measuring the distance of
the ob9ect. The ultrasonic beam has an
opening angle of around ,E. The sound
pressure level outside of this cone is less
than half 1!B d$2 that of the value on the
sensor a)is. The sensing range of this
sensor unit e)tends from >.@ to + m at an
ambient temperature of F@> ?E and a
relative air humidity of ,>G 345. The
sensing range depends on the reflectance
of the ob9ect such as the surface
properties and the angle of incidence.
&ithin limits% these influences can be
compensated by ad9usting the sensitivity.
0. I%-rare# Se%s"r
Infrared 1I2 sensors are
e)tensively used for measuring distances.
Therefore% they can be used in robotics for
obstacle avoidance. They are cheaper in
cost and faster in response time than
ultrasonic 1US2 sensors. .owever% they
have non!linear characteristics and they
depend on the reflectance properties of the
ob9ect surfaces. So knowledge of the
surface properties must be known prior. In
other words% the nature in which a surface
scatters% reflects% and absorbs infrared
energy is needed to interpret the sensor
output as distance measure. I sensors
using reflected light intensity to estimate
the distance from an ob9ect 3B5. Their
inherently fast response is attractive for
enhancing the real!time response of a
mobile robot .Some I sensors described
in the bibliography are based on the
measurement of the phase shift% and offer
medium resolution from , cm to 4> m% but
these are very e)pensive.
1. Ke(a#
4=, keypad is used to choose the
destination for the visually impaired
person. If he<she presses any key means it
will give voice output as place name. If
they press correctly means it will start
guiding from source to destination place
by giving voice information. /n the way if
any obstacles are presents it will give
voice output. It will inform that turn left%
turn right through the microcontroller. The
route and turnings are pre programmed in
the controller. Thus it so helpful for
guiding them correctly and reach the place
safely. In 3,5 they used B keys and each
key has special function% the person has to
press the B
th
key for finding route to the
destination.
2. M'cr"c"%tr"//er
The PI? 4B7C--A is an C!bit
microcontroller% which has an on!chip
eight channel 4>:bit Analog!to!8igital
?onverter 1A8?2. Samples are temporarily
stored in buffers in memory. After
completion of signal ac6uisition% the
microcontroller then communicates with
the GPS transceiver module on it
"AH@;@ port to send the samples1s2
continuously.
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C"%c/&s'"%
An ultrasonic ranging system%
which is cost effective and easy!to!use%
for integration into the visually impaired
long!cane was developed and tested. The
developed system can effectively detect
the presence of obstacles with accuracy in
the centimeter range. The system
hardware is composed of an ultrasonic
sensor% keypad that interfaces to a
microcontroller and a GPS transceiver.
&hile the application software runs on the
user(s GPS and utili0es Te)t!to!Speech
capabilities to announce the distance and
collision alerts. &e have chosen the
GPS implementation because GPS have
been widely accepted by the visually
impaired community because of its
increased performance.
Re-ere%ces
345A.A.TahatIA &ireless anging System
for the $lind #ong!?ane Utili0ing a
Smart!Phone ISchool of *lectrical
*ngineering % Princess Sumaya University
for Technology% Amman% Jordan.
3@5Andrew .Golding and Keal
#eshLIndoor Kavigation using a diverse
set of cheap% wearable sensorsL"*#%
?ambridge.
3;5Joao Jose% "iguel farra9ota%Joao ".7.
odrigues%J.".hans du $uf IThe Smart
'ision local navigation aid for blind and
visually impaired personsL University of
the Algarve 17?T and IS*2% 7aro%
Portugal.
3+5Miran kumara Patil% Pramod%
Shrihari%'i9ay Mumar
$.P.%T.T.KagabhushanLA generic
Information Service framework for
Physically ?hallenged People in &ireless
Ketworks IInternational Journal of
?omputer and *lectrical *ngineering%
'ol.;%no.+%August @>44.
3,5angsipan "arukatat%Pongmanat
manaspaibool%$en9awan khaiprapay%
Pornpimon Plien9aiL GPS Kavigator for
$lind &alking in a ?ampus L &orld
Academy of Science% *ngineering and
Technology -> @>4>.
3B5Tarek "ohammad IUsing Ultrasonic
and Infrared Sensors for 8istance
"easurementL &orld Academy of
Science% *ngineering and Technology ,4
@>>A.
3-5&olfgang &asserhurger% Jalia
Keuschmid% "anfred Schrenk I&eb!based
?ity "aps for $lind and 'isually Impaired
I*nvironment and Information Society%
Austria.