SMART CANE WITH ULTRASONIC SENSOR AND GLOBAL POSITIONING

SYSTEM FOR THE BLIND

LAU PING SHI

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

SMART CANE WITH ULTRASONIC SENSOR AND GLOBAL POSITIONING

SYSTEM FOR THE BLIND

LAU PING SHI

A report submitted in partial fulfilment of the

requirements for the award of the degree of
Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical-Electronic)

Faculty of Electrical Engineering

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

JUNE 2014

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I declare that this report entitled Smart Cane With Ultrasonic Sensor And Global
Positioning System For The Blind is the result of my own research except as cited in
the references. The report has not been accepted for any degree and is not concurrently
submitted in candidature of any other degree.

Signature
Name
Date

:
:
:

LAU PING SHI

June 18, 2014

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A special thanks to all for giving me support, motivation and concern

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I have taken my efforts to complete this project. However, it would be

impossible for me to complete this project without the encouragement and support
from certain people. Hence, at here I would like to give my sincere thanks to all of
them.

First of all, I would like to thanks to my supervisor, Dr. Usman Ullah Sheikh for
providing knowledge and constant supervision throughout the project. His guidance,
motivation and advising on the project has helped me complete the project.

Secondly, I would like to show my gratitude to my family. Their support and

encouragement have motivated me to finish this project. Besides, I would like to thank
my parents to be understood during the project development time

Lastly, I would like thanks to my friends that sharing their knowledge with me
while doing the project. Their advisor has helped me to solve the problems faced in
the project.

ABSTRACT

Blind people consists of a large group of people in our society. Losing their
eyesight has caused them inconvenience in performing daily tasks. Hence, smart cane
had been developed in order to increase the life quality of a blind person. The purpose
of this project is to design a smart cane with ultrasonic sensor and global positioning
system for the blind. This embedded system mainly has two parts, mobility and
navigation system. For mobility system, it is equipped with ultrasonic sensor, HCSR04 and vibrating motor. Ultrasonic sensor will send the trigger pulse to detect
obstacles. When an obstacle is detected, signals will be sent to vibrating motor and
activate it. The vibrating motor will vibrate with different strengths according to
the distance of the obstacle. For navigation system, the SKM53 global positioning
system is used to get real time coordinates. Geocoding is used to convert address into
coordinates. The coordinates will be sent to Arduino UNO through Processing and
save in the Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory (EEPROM) of
Arduino. Way-points technique is used to calculate the distance and direction from
location A to location B. The result of navigation in terms of distance and direction
will be performed by text to speech on Processing platform. The microcontroller used
in this embedded system is Arduino UNO. The processing unit used to synthesize the
result is Intel Atom Board DE2i-150. The prototype of smart cane was built to increase
the mobility of the blind people and with navigation system.

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ABSTRAK

Orang buta terdiri daripada sekumpulan besar orang dalam masyarakat kita.
Kehilangan penglihatan mereka telah menyebabkan mereka menghadapi kesusahan
dalam melaksanakan tugas harian. Oleh itu, tongkak pintar telah dibangunkan untuk
meningkatkan kualiti hidup orang buta. Tujuan projek ini adalah untuk mereka
bentuk tongkak pintar dengan sensor ultrasonik dan sistem kedudukan global untuk
orang buta. Sistem terbenam mempunyai dua bahagian, pergerakan dan sistem
navigasi. Untuk sistem mobiliti, ia dilengkapi dengan sensor ultrasonik, HC- SR04
dan motor bergetar. Sensor ultrasonik akan menghantar nadi picu untuk mengesan
halangan. Apabila halangan dikesan, isyarat akan dihantar kepada motor bergetar
dan mengaktifkannya. Motor bergetar akan bergetar dengan kekuatan yang berbeza
mengikut jarak halangan. Untuk sistem navigasi, SKM53 sistem kedudukan global
digunakan untuk mendapatkan koordinat masa nyata. Geocoding digunakan untuk
menukar alamat ke dalam koordinat. Koordinat akan dihantar kepada Arduino UNO
melalui Processing dan disimpan dalam Ingatan Baca Sahaja Boleh Diaturcara dan
Dipadam Secara Elektrik (EEPROM) Arduino. Teknik cara -mata digunakan untuk
mengira jarak dan arah dari lokasi A ke lokasi B. Hasil navigasi dari segi jarak dan
arah akan dilakukan dalam teks ucapan pada platform Processing. Pengawal mikro
yang digunakan dalam sistem terbenam ini adalah Arduino UNO. Sistem pemproses
yang digunakan untuk mensintesis hasilnya adalah Intel Atom DE2i -150. Prototaip
tongkak pintar telah direka bentuk untuk meningkatkan mobiliti orang buta dan dengan
sistem navigasi.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

TITLE
DECLARATION
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
ABSTRACT
ABSTRAK
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
LIST OF SYMBOLS
LIST OF APPENDICES

PAGE
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iii
iv
v
vi
vii
x
xi
xiii
xiv
xv

INTRODUCTION
1.1
Background Study
1.2
Problem Statement
1.3
Objective
1.4
Scope
1.5
Thesis Outline

1
1
2
2
2
3

LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1
Introduction
2.2
White Cane
2.3
Global Positioning System (GPS)
2.4
Ultrasonic Sensor
2.5
Universal Synchronous Asynchronous Receiver
Transmitter (USART)
2.6
Types of Smart Cane
2.6.1
MobiFree
2.6.2
Electronic Long Cane

4
4
4
5
8
10
11
11
13

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2.6.3
2.6.4
2.6.5

2.6.6

Virtual Cane
Hybrid Infrared-Ultrasonic Electronic
Travel Aids
NAVIG - Navigation Assisted by Embedded Vision and GNSS (Global Navigation
Satellite System)
Real-time GPS Track Simplification Algorithm

14
15

16
18

METHODOLOGY
3.1
Introduction
3.2
Project Overview
3.2.1
Project Flow
3.3
Microcontroller
3.3.1
Arduino UNO
3.3.2
Port Register
3.4
Obstacle Detection System
3.4.1
Ultrasonic Sensor Performance
3.4.2
Flow of Obstacle Detection Design
3.5
Navigation System
3.5.1
Global Positioning System
3.5.1.1 Way-Points Technique
3.5.2
Geocoding
3.5.3
Speech Recognition
3.5.4
Processing
3.5.4.1 Input Latitude and Longitude
Data
3.5.4.2 Text to Speech

20
20
20
22
22
23
24
25
25
27
28
28
29
31
32
33

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1
Introduction
4.2
Mobility System
4.2.1
Navigation System
4.2.1.1 Geocoding and Speech Recognition
4.2.1.2 Global Positioning System
4.2.1.3 Text to Speech
4.2.2
Overall System Design

36
36
36
40

34
35

41
42
44
45

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5

CONCLUSION
5.1
Introduction
5.2
Conclusion
5.3
Future Work

48
48
48
49

PROJECT MANAGEMENT
6.1
Introduction
6.1.1
Project Schedule
6.1.2
Cost Estimation

50
50
50
52

REFERENCES
Appendices A B

53
56 58

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO.
3.1
4.1
6.1

TITLE
Vibrating motor strength according to distance from obstacle
Result of sensor detected distance and measure distance
Project budget

PAGE
27
38
52

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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO.
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
2.10
2.11
2.12
2.13
2.14
2.15
3.1
3.2
3.3
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9
3.10
3.11
3.12
3.13
3.14
3.15

TITLE
Three core segment of GPS system
GPS receiver
Points, line and polygon
Pedestrian network construct algorithm
Sonar illustration
Schematic diagram of ultrasonic sensor
USART and PC
Signal at PIC port
MobiFree function and usage
MobiFree cane overall architecture
Function of electronic long cane
Haptic force generator
Hybrid Infrared-Ultrasonic Electronic Travel Aids
Geolocated visual landmarks used for user-positioning
Track simplification algorithm process flow diagram
Overall design flow of smart cane
Flow of project
Microcontroller architecture
Arduino UNO R3 pinouts
ATmega328 ports
Best performance in 30 degree angle
Timing diagram
Flowchart of obstacle detection
Flowchart of navigation system design
Spherical earth model for way-points calculation
Graphically representation of location A and B
Instruction according to course change
Geocoding
Windows speech recognition
Simple pronunciation to give complete address

PAGE
6
6
7
8
9
10
11
11
12
13
14
15
16
18
19
21
22
23
24
25
26
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
33

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3.16
3.17
4.1

4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5
4.6
4.7
4.8
4.9
4.10
4.11
4.12
4.13
6.1
6.2

Extract data from text file

Convert data to float value and save in EEPROM
Response of HC-SR04 in obstacle detection a) distance from
obstacles b) algorithm for obstacle detection c) response of
HC-SR04 to obstacles
Distances detected from HC-SR04
Sensor detected distance versus actual measured distance
Hardware implementation on mobility system
Flow of the navigation system
Speech recognition and geocoding
Way-points technique
Current coordinates obtainned from GPS
Coordinates to an address. a) point shows on map b)
coordinates of a location
Result of way-points calculation
Text to speech
Schematic diagram of overall system design
Overall hardware design
Project Gantt chart (semester 1)
Project Gantt chart (semester 2)

34
34

37
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
43
44
45
46
47
51
51

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

API

Application Programming Interface

CPU

Central Positioning Unit

DC

Direct Current

DDR

Double Data Rate

EEPROM

Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory

GNSS

Global Navigation Satellite System

GPS

Global Positioning System

IDE

Integrated Development System

LED

Light Emitting Diode

NAVIG

Navigation Assisted by Embedded Vision and GNSS

NMEA

Nationl Marine Electronics Association

PC

Personal Computer

PIC

Peripheral Interface Controller

PVC

Polyvinyl Chloride

RISC

Reduced Instruction Set Computing

TTL

Transistor Transisor Logic

TTS

Text To Speech

USART

Universal Synchronous Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter

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LIST OF SYMBOLS

latitude

longitude

heading angle

distance to obstacle

vibrating motor strength-PWM

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LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX
A
B

TITLE
Datasheet Ultrasonic Sensor: HC-SR04
Datasheet Global Positioning System: SKM53

PAGE
56
58

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Background Study

In 2010, the Welfare Department accounted for 64,000 blind people registered
in Malaysia and the estimated number of blind was 4 to 5 times higher [1]. This shows
that the population of blind people in Malaysia is quite high. Total blindness is the
condition when there is completely no light perception and for blindness that have
light perception, they can only sense light but unable to have sight vision. The most
common diseases that bring to blindness are cataracts, retinal diseases, uncorrected
refractive errors, corneal diseases and glaucoma [2].

Blind people are able to move independently after they are trained with tools.
Professionals such as orientation and mobility specialists are able to help blind people
to move safely, independently and confidently. Tools that are commonly used by blind
people are white cane and guide dogs. Blind people swing the white cane around their
feet to detect the existence of an obstacle around their step. A guide dog is trained to
help their master to avoid all the obstacles and it is able to guide their master to go up
and down the staircase.

Traditional white cane has its limitation. It can only detect the obstacles when
the white cane has contact with it. Traditional white cane cannot detect the obstacle
precisely and unable to detect above the knee level obstacles. Moreover, normal white
cane does not have navigation technology to guide blind person to move to a location
they are unfamiliar with. Consider on the limitation of the traditional white cane,
research and development group across the nation had developed various types of smart
cane to help blind people. The smart cane developed normally using ultrasonic sensor,
infrared sensor, audio assistance or vibration to increase the mobility.

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1.2

Problem Statement

Traditional white cane lack of intelligent technology to improve the living

standard of blind people. Blind people need to be trained by specialists in order to
use a white cane to perform their daily tasks.

White cane can only sense an obstacle up to 1 meter. It is unable to warn the
user when there is an obstacle in their path until the user has touched it. Some incidents
happen due to blind people did not sense the existence of an obstacle. The incidents
might lead to serious injury on blind people.

Besides, white cane also does not have the ability to guide the user to travel to
desired location. Blind people might get lost and face some risk or danger when they
need to travel. They need to depend on people to bring them to a certain location or
they can only travel in a place they are familiar with. Loss of eyesight brings many
inconvenience to a blind person.

1.3

Objective

The main objective of this project is to design a smart cane to increase the
mobility of a blind person and to implement a navigation system. To increase the
mobility ability, ultrasonic sensor is used to sense obstacles and alert the blind people
through vibration. For navigation system, global positioning system is used to give
direction and distance to the destination through audio output.

1.4

Scope

The project scope consists of two parts, hardware and software design. For
hardware part, it mainly consists of ultrasonic sensor, global positioning system,
vibrating motor, Arduino UNO and Intel Atom board. For software part, C
programming language is used to control the hardware input and output, Visual Basic
is used for geocoding and speech recognition and Processing is used to interface with
the Arduino IDE.

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1.5

Thesis Outline

This thesis consists of five chapters. Chapter 2 is Literature Review and

consists of discussion of hardware and software parts that are related to the projects
topic and also some smart cane related works. Chapter 3 is Methodology and contains
the flow of the project and also the methods to implement the project. Chapter 4 is
Results and Discussion. The output of the design will be discussed. Lastly, Chapter
5 will be Conclusion. It will conclude the whole project and also recommend some
future works for the project.

CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1

Introduction

The main objective of this project is to discuss about the design of smart cane
with ultrasonic sensor and global positioning system for the blind. To design a smart
cane with multiple purposes, it is able to increase the living standard of a blind person.
By designing this smart cane, blind people are able to detect obstacles more efficiently.
Moreover, they can use a GPS system to guide them in order to prevent them from
getting lost.

2.2

White Cane

A white cane is a long stick that is used by blind people for mobility purpose
and to know the environment they are travelling through. The first white cane is
designed after War World I [3]. White cane is made from aluminium or fiberglass
and with metal tip or nylon at the one end for a person to hold.

The purpose of designing white cane is for a person to detect the obstacles. It
can be used to detect holes, staircase, drop-off and slope of the ground or any objects
around a person. When using the white cane, a person will hold one end of the cane and
the other end is touching with the ground. A blind person will sweep the white cane
and step on the place they tapped. This can avoid blind people from losing balance due
to disproportion of the floor or stepping on an object [4].

There are 4 types of white cane. The first type of white cane is long cane. The
length of this type of cane is the longest. A long cane is the most commonly used by

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blind people as it is the most basic, changeable and low cost of maintenance. Basic
training is needed for blind people to get used to this kind of white cane in order to live
independently. The second type is guide cane. Guide cane is much shorter than long
cane where it is only to the waist of the user. Hence, it has lower mobility function. It
mainly focuses on the lower part of the user where it focuses on the diagonal position
of the guide cane. It can be used to detect holes, stones and curb. Third version of
white cane is identification cane also named as symbol cane. This type of white cane
is not designed for mobility purpose as it is designed to remind public that the user is
blind people. The design of this white cane is for public to lend their hand to blind
people. The last type of white cane is a childrens cane or kiddie cane. The purpose of
designing this type of white cane is for childrens usage. It has similar properties just
like long cane [5].

2.3

Global Positioning System (GPS)

Global positioning system (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system that

stands from satellites that orbit in the space. The GPS system is able to provide three
dimensional positioning, time and location for navigation purpose. GPS is mainly used
in five purposes: navigation, tracking, location, mapping and timing [6]. GPS is able
to provide information in all time and all types of weather.

GPS system consists of three main segments. The first segment is satellite
segment. The satellite segment is designed to have at least four satellites that function
to receive signals at any moment. Hence, the GPS receiver is able to provide graphic
information in three dimensions in order to determine the location stated. Those signals
are transmitted at very high frequency. Basically, satellite consists of atomic clocks,
computer, radio transmission system, solar panels, batteries and other components.
Satellite is required to have maintenance from time to time in order to increase the
reliability, accessibility, accuracy and security purpose.

The second segment is control segment. Control Segment stands from three
main stations, which are Master Control Station, Ground Antenna Station and Monitor
Station. Satellites will send the navigation signals to monitor stations and then send to
master control station for further processing and ended at ground antenna station. The
ground antenna station also functions as routine checking satellites system, updating
software and regulate satellites orbit.

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The third segment is user segment. User segment consists of two categories,
military usage and civilians usage. Civilian can use GPS in order to determine location
and timing.

Figure 2.1: Three core segment of GPS system

Figure 2.1 shows the operation of three main segments in GPS system. GPS
system works as shown in the Figure 2.2. Information signals are received by antenna
and radio-frequency receiver. The digital signal processor, then tracks those signals
and adjust parameters of it. Navigation Processor will calculate the position, velocity
and time according to signal received and displays it [7].

Figure 2.2: GPS receiver [7]

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Normally, GPS system is used in car navigation instead of pedestrian
navigation. However, GPS system in smart cane focuses on pedestrian navigation.
Hence, a pedestrian network is required to develop GPS system for blind people.
Pedestrian network is a network that connects passengers with road path to a certain
location. Pedestrian network is harder to create compared to road network due to it has
a lot of multipath and required a lot of memory to store those paths.

To represent the pedestrian network, the data should focus on the path segment
type, slope and distance. The vector data model is suitable to design this kind of
network. This is due to the vector data model uses points, lines and polygon to
represent the map. It can represent the route path closer to the reality and its topology
information results are easier to change and to detect errors. Figure 2.3 shows the
vector data model of points, lines and polygon.

Figure 2.3: Points, line and polygon

One of the methods to design a pedestrian network is through collaborative

mapping. Collaborative mapping is to generate a map in the network through a group
of people or individual. It is simple and cheap method to get the map for pedestrian
compared with other methods, but it relies on the public to give information. Figure
2.4 shows the pedestrian network construct algorithm.

Figure 2.4: Pedestrian network construct algorithm [8]

Network construct algorithm mainly consists of three main parts, preprocessing, significant point filtering and pedestrian network construction. Preprocessing is to filter raw GPS trace error which relates to time, latitude and longitude
and location error. Significant point filtering is filtering out the most significant
pathway for pedestrian. The information on the walking path is extracted and analysis
to determine its accuracy in order for pedestrian use. Pedestrian network construction
is to construct the network of pedestrian. It is started with determining the map
boundary and determine the geometry of pedestrian path segment and extract the
information gather to create a new pedestrian network [8].

2.4

Ultrasonic Sensor

Ultrasonic sensor functions for detecting objects and responds with distance
measured. Ultrasonic sensor uses frequency in order to detect objects. The frequency
used for detecting objects is around 20 kHz to 100 kHz. It is mostly applied in ambient
noise level, leak detection and material testing [9]. The ultrasonic sensor is highly used
as it is cheap, simple design and efficient.

Figure 2.5: Sonar illustration

Ultrasonic sensor can be used for object detection.

A transducer is
implemented with highly directional ultrasonic range sensor to detect object in the
surroundings. Figure 2.5 shows the operation of ultrasonic sensor to send and receive
sonar to detect object. Ultrasonic sensor consists of wave producer, counter mass,
amplifier and radiation section. Ultrasonic waves attenuated more frequently, which
makes it become a better for directivity than other kinds of waves. Transmitter
of ultrasonic sensor can be designed using Gallego Juarezs stepped plate where it
consists of wave generation, amplification and radiation while microphone is used as
receiver. Gallego Juarezs stepped plate is also used in producing intense wave for the
parametric array purpose [10].

Figure 2.6 shows the schematic diagram of an ultrasonic sensor. At the end
of the transducer is where the counter mass is located in order to ensure transducer
produces same node point. The transducer material used is Lead Zirconate Titanate
with different polarization. Linear Horn is used as amplification and radiating plate
will consist of amplified high-intensity of ultrasound.

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Figure 2.6: Schematic diagram of ultrasonic sensor [10]

Dual- frequency wave is used as it has higher amplitude propagation. By using

this method, single wave generation can be improved as a single wave cannot detect
both object and distance detection accurately. The two waves need to have different
frequencies. Two different frequencies are generated through axisymmetric mode with
different nodal circles. A mathematical model is needed to adjust the radiation section
in order to produce dual-frequency wave [10].

2.5

Universal Synchronous Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (USART)

USART controller is a serial communications subsystem of a computer. The

USART takes bytes of data and transmits the individual bits in a sequential fashion.
The COM port of the PC is used to interface with other serial peripherals.

USART consist of two modes of operation, synchronous and asynchronous

mode. For asynchronous mode, it uses data transmit output (TX) and data receive
input (RX) to operate. Data is sent from less significant bit to most significant bit and
transmitted in 8 bit word. Transmitting and receiving USART must be set at the same
baud rate.

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Figure 2.7: USART and PC

Figure 2.8: Signal at PIC port

In Figure 2.7, it shows the connection between PIC and PC. PIC USART output
will operate at TTL voltages and hence need an external serial line driver to convert
the output to a symmetrical line voltage. The higher line voltage can help in further
transmission and overcome the noise problem. Figure 2.8 shows that the signal in TTL
form [11].

2.6

Types of Smart Cane

In this section, sevaral types of smart cane will be reviewed and discussed.

2.6.1

MobiFree

MobiFree cane is equipped with MobiFree sunglasses and MobiFree echo [12].
MobiFree is designed to detect obstacles, step-off and holes. MobiFree sunglasses are

12
used to detect obstacle above knee level, whereas Mobifree echo is designed to detect
obstacles far away by using directive speaker.

Figure 2.9: MobiFree function and usage [12]

Figure 2.9 shows MobiFree function and its usage. The obstacles, step-off and
holes are detected through ultrasonic sensor which will be used as input to a vibrator
to alert the user. The body of the cane is installed with blinking LED where available
light is detected, then the LED will be on. Moreover, Mobifree uses photovoltaic solar
cells as the power source.

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Figure 2.10: MobiFree cane overall architecture [12]

Figure 2.10 shows overall architecture of MobiFree cane. There are two
ultrasonic sensors in the smart cane for better detection of obstacles. One of the
ultrasonic sensors is located higher than the other. Different kinds of wave are
received and combined together, hence able to increase the diversity of the system.
Microcontroller used is with low power ability and using solar panel to store power.
LED signals are used for safety issue to alert others especially car drivers. Vibration
motor is used to pass information to user on the existence of obstacles [12]. MobiFree
has good ability in detecting obstacle as it used long cane, sunglasses and hearing
device to detect obstacle surrounding and within a distance limit.

2.6.2

Electronic Long Cane

Electronic Long Canes main purpose is to detect the obstacle above waist.
The vibration strength is according to the distance between the obstacle and user. The
obstacles are detected by using ultrasonic sensor which connects with micromotor to
give the vibration output.

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Figure 2.11: Function of electronic long cane [13]

Figure 2.11 shows the function of electronic long cane. Electronic long cane
uses an ultrasonic sensor which is placed in the middle of the smart cane. Micromotor
used is based on an Atmel AVR microcontroller and with 9V of batteries to supply
power to the embedded system [13]. Electronic long cane mainly focuses on detecting
any kind of physical barrier above waistline. It is simply the improved version of
traditional long white cane where it does not have an additional advanced function.

2.6.3

Virtual Cane

Virtual Canes concept is using the inner force sense to be aware of the
existence of obstacle around. The main component used is haptic force generator with
a gyroscope. Development of this cane is based on the superficial moment of inertia
theory. Moment of inertia of rod depends on the perceive length of rod.

15

Figure 2.12: Haptic force generator [14]

Figure 2.12 shows the haptic force generator in virtual cane. Perceive length
of the rod will be increased exponentially with moment of inertia. The haptic force
generator is used to generate torque that will lead to moment of inertia. DC motor is
used to rotate the rotor at high speed. The servo motor is managed through a pulse
width modulation circuit. This type of smart cane is using haptic force generator with
gyroscope as non-installing and non-equipping device [14]. Virtual cane still needs a
lot of investigation as its design is still based on concept and theory without practical
experiment. Perceive length that relates to superficial moment of inertia and haptic
illusion still needs some research and development as the results obtained are affected
by a lot factors and noise.

2.6.4

Hybrid Infrared-Ultrasonic Electronic Travel Aids

This system uses a combination of infrared-red and ultrasonic sensor. Two

infrared-reds are used to sense smaller objects which are not detected by ultrasonic
sensor while ultrasonic sensor is used to sense surfaces. Vibrating motor is installed
to alert the user to the existence of obstacles and the microcontroller is used to control
input and output of signals.

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Figure 2.13: Hybrid Infrared-Ultrasonic Electronic Travel Aids

Figure 2.13 shows the Hybrid Infrared-Ultrasonic Electronic Travel Aids. This
travel aid is designed in a belt shape so it is wearable and easy to carry. Part 1 and 2 are
vibrating motors, part 3 and 4 are infrared sensors, part 5 is ultrasonic sensor and part
6 is the microcontroller. There are 4 vibrating motors which are located at the front
and the back of the belt. Therefore, when an obstacle is detected, vibrating motor is
able to alert the user of the obstacle located in the direction of front or back and right
or left. Microcontroller that is used is an Arduino UNO board based on ATmega328
type [15].

Hybrid infrared-ultrasonic electronic travel aids is a simple design of travel aids

for blind. It uses infrared red and ultrasonic sensor for an obstacle detection purpose
which is low cost and efficient. However, it is designed with a belt instead of cane
which may cause inconvenience for blind people as they may feel insecure without
white cane.

2.6.5

NAVIG - Navigation Assisted by Embedded Vision and GNSS (Global

Navigation Satellite System)

NAVIG project mainly focuses on navigation purpose. Its main purpose is

strengthening mobility and orientation parts. Mobility is ability to be aware and avoid
the obstacles in the surroundings. Orientation is able to determine the direction and

17
location. NAVIG has three parts, embedded artificial vision, pedestrian positioning
issue and interaction.

Embedded artificial vision uses a stereoscopic camera to extract images and

match with SpikeNet Vision. SpikeNet Vision is used for structuring adaption to
compare with object localization and users position. For object localization, the
system reads according to the image taken and leads the user towards the object. For
user position, this function will alert the user whether they are located at the right
position, giving the correct path and inform the user the location they are situated.

The pedestrian position issue faces are most common problem that is lack of
data for pedestrian navigation as most navigation design is for vehicles. Therefore,
Geographical Information System that is used for navigation for pedestrian purpose is
improved and included with the users position. It improves the route path information
for pedestrian selection. In order to improve the shortage of pedestrian navigation,
inertial motion tracker is used. It is able to sense face facing and body direction and
hence sense the direction headed. To increase the accuracy of pedestrian network,
data fusion is used. The first stage is to read the data input like speed, direction and
reduce amount of noise. Secondly, reduce the random and systematic error to get better
information. Lastly, the image obtained is matched with map of GPS location.

Interaction is through audio navigation by presenting guidance on direction

and also room available in the surroundings. NAVIG device uses 3D audio scene when
giving guidance to users [16].

18

Figure 2.14: Geolocated visual landmarks used for user-positioning [16]

Figure 2.14 shows the results of using NAVIG for navigation purpose. It uses
landmarks of a location in order to track the position of a blind person.

2.6.6

Real-time GPS Track Simplification Algorithm

This project mainly is to modify the GPS into more user friendly for pedestrian
purpose instead of vehicle. For track simplification, simplification algorithm that is
able to filter GPS location is used in order to decrease the sensitivity. Kalman Filter is
used to reduce the random error of the GPS due to the low number of visible satellites.
The time error will be able to be reduced as it is able to track the exact route according
to velocity of user [17]. Figure 2.15 shows the track simplification algorithm process
flow diagram.

19

Figure 2.15: Track simplification algorithm process flow diagram [17]

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY

3.1

Introduction

This chapter will focus on the discussion on the project flow and the method to
implement this project. Hardware devices and programming language used to control
each part of the devices will be discussed as well.

3.2

Project Overview

This project mainly consists of two parts, hardware design and software design.
Hardware design consists of four parts: Intel atom board that acts as a Central
Processing Unit (CPU) that generates output of speech. Arduino UNO is used as a
microcontroller for embedded system. The ultrasonic sensor is characterized to sense
obstacles and send the feedback to vibrating motor. Lastly, geocoding and speech
recognition is used to get the data on the coordinates of a location. Then, global
positioning system is used to provide the direction to a location by using way-points
technique.

Software design is mainly controlled by using C programming. Visual Basic is

used as the platform in designing the geocoding and speech recognition. Processing is
used to interface with the Arduino IDE.

21

Figure 3.1: Overall design flow of smart cane

Figure 3.1 shows that the overall flow of the system. The input of the system
consists of signal from ultrasonic sensor and address of a location. Arduino UNO will
interface with GPS system to get the real time coordinates. The signal from ultrasonic
sensor will be sent to vibrating motor. The result of navigation system will be sent to
Intel Atom Board for text to speech synthesis.

22
3.2.1

Project Flow

Figure 3.2: Flow of project

Figure 3.2 shows the method and design throughout the project. The literature
review and documentation will be kept updated throught the project. For hardware and
software implementation, testing and troubleshooting is performed regulary to confirm
the system is running properly.

3.3

Microcontroller

Microcontroller is built by a single integrated circuit. It consists of processor

core, memory and programmable input and output peripherals. Figure 3.3 shows the
overall operation system in a microcontroller.

23

Figure 3.3: Microcontroller architecture [18]

3.3.1

Arduino UNO

Arduino UNO is the microcontroller that is used in this project. It is built based
on ATmega328 in AVR 8 bit RISC architecture. It has 6 analog inputs, 14 digital input
output port, a USB connection, 16MHz ceramic resonator, power jack and an ICSP
connector. It consists of 1 KB of EEPROM memory which can be read and writen.
Communication in Arduino UNO is using UART TTL serial communication.

24

Figure 3.4: Arduino UNO R3 pinouts

Figure 3.4 shows the input and output ports and features that are built in the
Arduino Uno.

3.3.2

Port Register

In this project, digital input and output port of Arduino UNO is used to connect
to the embedded system. The ports used are Port B and Port D. DDR register in
ATmega328 is used to determine the connection of input or output by setting the
connection to high or low.

25

Figure 3.5: ATmega328 ports

Figure 3.5 shows the analog and digital input/output ports that are built in the
ATmega328.

3.4

Obstacle Detection System

Obstacle detection system is designed by using ultrasonic sensor. Implementation of obstacle detection system in smart cane is important as it is used to detect
obstacles below knee level of blind persons.

3.4.1

Ultrasonic Sensor Performance

The ultrasonic sensor used in this project is HC-SR04. It uses sonar to

determine the distance to an object. This sensor can detect an object up to 2cm to

26
400 cm in 30 degrees. Its sensitivity can be up to 3mm. Figure 3.6 shows the best
performance of HC-SR04 in 30 degree angle.

Figure 3.6: Best performance in 30 degree angle

Figure 3.7: Timing diagram

Figure 3.7 shows the timing diagram of HC-SR04. The operation starts when
HC-SR04 receives a high pulse and hence initiates the sensor. Every time, eight cycles
of ultrasound at 40 kHz is sent to detect the presence of obstacle. Hence the distance
in centimeters can be calculated, which is given as distance = time/58.

27
3.4.2

Flow of Obstacle Detection Design

Figure 3.8: Flowchart of obstacle detection

Table 3.1: Vibrating motor strength according to distance from obstacle

Distance to Obstacle, (cm) Vibrating Motor Strength-PWM, (%)
2 < 10

100

10 < 20

90.2

20 < 30

78.4

30 < 40

58.8

40 < 50

39.2

2 or > 50

Figure 3.8 and Table 3.1 show the operation and flow of ultrasonic sensor on
obstacle detection. When there is no obstacles detected in the range, the ultrasonic
sensor will keep on detecting and sense for obstacles. When there is an obstacle
detected, ultrasonic sensor will send the feedback to vibrating motor. Hence, the
vibrating motor will vibrate in different strength according to the distance from the
obstacle as shown in Table3.1.

28
3.5

Navigation System

Figure 3.9: Flowchart of navigation system design

Figure 3.9 briefly explains on the design of the navigation system. At the
beginning, the address of a location is set in two methods, either by manual input
or through speech recognition. The result of the geocoding saved in a text file and
sent to Arduino IDE through processing. By using the way-points technique, distance
and direction to a location can be determined. Lastly, processing will perform text to
speech synthesis.

3.5.1

Global Positioning System

The global positioning system used is Skylab SKM53. It has ultra-high

sensitivity up to -165dBm. It can support serial connection by using UART and using
a baud rate at 9600bps. The GPS supports NMEA protocol and able to get the data
such as current location latitude, longitude, date and time. The NMEA protocol in

29
geographical position is $GPGLL, 2232.1843, N, 11401.1905, E, 035059.000, A,
A*54 which will be used in the project. The format of NMEA protocol is listed as
$geographical position, current latitude, North/South, current longitude, East/West,
coordinated universal time (UTC), checksum.

3.5.1.1 Way-Points Technique

A GPS receiver can obtain coordinates of the current location. For direction
and distance towards a destination, it can be obtained through way-points technique.
Figure 3.10 shows spherical earth model for way-points calculation.

Figure 3.10: Spherical earth model for way-points calculation

To move from location A to location B, the point can be set up as

A = [cos(1 ), 0, sin(1 )]T

(3.1)

B = [cos(2 ) cos(2 1 ), cos(2 ) sin(2 1 ), sin(2 )]T

(3.2)

30
1 and 2 are latitudes, 1 and 2 are longitudes for location A and B
respectively. Figure 3.11 shows graphically representation of location A and B.

Figure 3.11: Graphically representation of location A and B

The desired heading angle is calculated as shown in equation [19]

tan() =

v
u
u (B
t

A)2x + (B A)2z
(B A)2y

cos(2 ) sin(2 1 )
cos(1 ) sin(2 ) sin(2 ) cos(2 ) cos(2 1 )

(3.3)

(3.4)

= arctan 2(cos(2 ) sin(2 1 ), cos(1 ) sin(2 ) sin(2 ) cos(2 ) cos(2 1 ))

(3.5)

31
By using Haversine formula, distance can be calculated as

d = 2r. arcsin sin2 (

2 1
2 1
) + cos(1 )(2 ) sin2 (
)
2
2

(3.6)

Therefore, the distance and course regarding to a location can be determined.

Hence, the navigation system can be designed based on the distance and course change.

Figure 3.12: Instruction according to course change

Figure 3.12 is used to determine which direction should a blind people head to.
The direction will change according to the position of the GPS receiver. Hence, the
blind people is able to change the direction headed according to the angle change.

3.5.2

Geocoding

Geocoding is a process of obtaining coordinates in latitude and longitude

format from an address.
Google has provided different types of APIs for
designing geocoding purpose.
The Google Geocoding will be using Static
Maps API as the platform.
The Google Geocoding API consists of two
types that are JSON and XML data.
The format of Geocoding API is
http://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/geocode/output?parameters.
The Google
Static Maps API is to download in a form of image as JPEG format. The design of

32
the geocoding includes zoom in and out features in order for users to be able to see the
map more clearly.

Figure 3.13: Geocoding

Figure 3.13 shows the column for user to enter the address. Coordinates will
be showed after the user clicks on the show button. The location of the coordinates
will appear in the map as shown in Figure 3.13.

3.5.3

Speech Recognition

Speech recognition is to perform speech to text synthesis. It uses a speech

recognizer in the Windows system. Figure 3.14 shows Windows speech recognition.

33

Figure 3.14: Windows speech recognition

The culture of language will be set to default language that is English (United
States). Due to speaking tone and pronunciation is different between Malaysia and
United States, it is hard to capture and recognize the words spoken. Therefore, the
default address of location is pre-set and Windows Speech Recognition will recognize
a simple pronunciation and change the text into a complete address.

Figure 3.15: Simple pronunciation to give complete address

From Figure 3.15, it shows the default settings for some locations. Hence, a
user can use voice input and less error in getting an address.

3.5.4

Processing

Processing in integrated development environment based on C++ programing

language. Processing is used to input data into Arduino IDE and get the output results
of Arduino IDE.

34
3.5.4.1 Input Latitude and Longitude Data

The data in the text file will be read as string and extracted line by line. The data
will be converted to float value in order for way-points calculation. The conversion will
be using atof which converts array to float number. Finally, the data will be saved in
EEPROM of Arduino to start the navigation system.

Figure 3.16: Extract data from text file

Figure 3.16 shows the algorithm to extract data from text file and put in array
format.

Figure 3.17: Convert data to float value and save in EEPROM

35
Figure 3.17 shows that the data in array in converted to floating value. This is
to enable the value to be calculated by using way-points technique. The float value
converted is then saved in EEPROM of Arduino UNO.

3.5.4.2 Text to Speech

The text to speech conversion can be done by using the TTS library. The
connection must be using the same COM port and also baud rate. The audio output
will be read from the output of Arduino line by line and stopped when it detects certain
character. In this project, the character set is z.

CHAPTER 4

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1

Introduction

In this chapter, the results of this project are discussed. The results are tested
and verified in order to ensure the function of the project fulfills the objectives.

4.2

Mobility System

HC-SR04 is used to detect the existence of an obstacle. When the ultrasonic

sensor detects the existence of an obstacle, it will send the signal to vibrating motor to
vibrate with different vibration strengths.

The trigger will send the ultrasound at 40 kHz. When the ultrasound detects
an obstacle, it will bounce back and generate an echo. Figure 4.1 shows the echo
detected due to obstacle detection. The chart that corresponds to variation of distance
of obstacle detected and data that is recorded based on the distance away from the
obstacle.

The distance between the obstacle and ultrasonic sensor in centimeters can be
determined by using the formula distance=time/29.1/2. Figure 4.2 shows the result of
obstacle detection by ultrasonic sensor.

37

Figure 4.1: Response of HC-SR04 in obstacle detection a) distance from obstacles b)

algorithm for obstacle detection c) response of HC-SR04 to obstacles

Figure 4.2: Distances detected from HC-SR04

38
Table 4.1: Result of sensor detected distance and measure distance
No

Measure Distance (cm) Sensor Detected Distance (cm) Error (cm)

-1

10

-1

15

14

-1

20

20

25

24

-1

30

29

-1

35

33

-2

40

38

-2

10

45

43

-2

11

50

48

-2

12

55

54

-1

13

60

59

-1

Average Error

-1.154

Figure 4.3: Sensor detected distance versus actual measured distance

39
Table 4.1 and Figure 4.3 show the differences between ultrasonic sensor
measurement and actual measurement between the obstacle and ultrasonic sensor. The
error between the result of ultrasonic sensor and measured values is small that is -1.154
cm. Hence, it can show that the result of ultrasonic sensors detected distance value is
reliable.

Figure 4.4: Hardware implementation on mobility system

Figure 4.4 shows the hardware implementation on mobility system. The

ultrasonic sensor and vibrating motor is located at the lower part of smart cane
prototype. The ultrasonic sensor is located at 2.5 cm from the end of the PVC pipe.
The vibrating motor is located at 1cm above the ultrasonic sensor as shown in Figure
4.4.

40
4.2.1

Navigation System

Figure 4.5: Flow of the navigation system

Figure 4.5 shows the design of the navigation systems. The geocoding
is implemented in Visual Basic and will send the data to Arduino IDE by using
Processing. Distance and direction are calculated by using way-points technique and
will be processed in the Arduino IDE. The results will be used by Processing to perform
text to speech synthesis.

41
4.2.1.1 Geocoding and Speech Recognition

Geocoding is used for obtaining latitude and longitude of a location. The

geocoding uses Google Maps. Speech recognition is designed to input the address
of a location for geocoding purpose. The speech recognition uses Windows speech
recognition function. Hence, speech recognition library in Windows will be used to
activate the Windows speech recognition and used in the program.

Figure 4.6: Speech recognition and geocoding

Figure 4.6 shows the result of using the speech recognition and geocoding.
The address location is input using speech recognition. By using the geocoding, the
latitude and longitude of a location can be obtained. The location of an address will
be showed in the map. The coordinates of the location will be saved to a text file for
further processing.

42
4.2.1.2 Global Positioning System

Figure 4.7 shows the algorithm of way-points technique to determine the

direction and distance.

Figure 4.7: Way-points technique

Skylab SKM53 GPS is used to obtain the real time coordinates of a location.
Figure 4.8 shows the coordinates obtained from the GPS receiver. Figure 4.9 shows
the result of using Itouchmap. Itouchmap is used to verify the latitude and longitude
obtained through GPS receiver. The same values of latitude and longitude are verified
by using Itouchmap. The result shows the current location of the GPS receiver. By
obtaining current coordinates, calculation to desired location can be proceeded. The
calculation will be conducted using way-points technique. It mainly focuses on two
calculations that are distance to destination and angle to destination.

43

Figure 4.8: Current coordinates obtainned from GPS

Figure 4.9: Coordinates to an address. a) point shows on map b) coordinates of a

location

44
Way-points techniques can be used to calculate the distance and direction to
the desired location. Figure 4.10 shows the output.

Figure 4.10: Result of way-points calculation

4.2.1.3 Text to Speech

Text to Speech is used to read the output data of the way-points technique.
Hence, a blind person can travel by using audio system.

45

Figure 4.11: Text to speech

Figure 4.11 shows the text to speech output in Processing. Processing will
obtain from the output the Arduino. Then, it will use TTS library for text to speech
conversion. So, the distance and angle will be notified to the user in speech format.
The text to speech synthesis will be set up in the Intel Atom DE2i-150.

4.2.2

Overall System Design

Figure 4.12 shows the schematic diagram of the whole project. For ultrasonic
sensor, the trigger is connected to digital input output port 9, echo is connected to port
10. RX of the GPS is connected to port 2 whereas TX is connected to port 3. One end
of the vibrating motor is connected to port 8 and the other end is connected to ground.
A switch is designed to activate the GPS system to turn on. The switch is in the active
low mode.

46

Figure 4.12: Schematic diagram of overall system design

Figure 4.13 shows the prototype of the smart cane with ultrasonic sensor and
global positioning system. The prototype is built using PVC pipe. Lower part of the
PVC pipe consists of ultrasonic sensor and vibrating motor. Higher part consists of
Arduino UNO, GPS system and a switch.

47

Figure 4.13: Overall hardware design

CHAPTER 5

CONCLUSION

5.1

Introduction

This chapter will conclude on the project Smart Cane with Ultrasonic Sensor
and Global Positioning System for The Blind. Several recommendations for further
work are given as well.

5.2

Conclusion

As a conclusion, this project includes the combination of ultrasonic sensor,

global positioning system, vibrating motor, Arduino UNO and Intel Atom board to
build a smart cane for the blind people. The development environments involve Visual
Basic, Arduino IDE and Processing. Two main objectives of this project that are
to increase the mobility and also to enable navigation system had been successfully
implemented.

To increase the performance of mobility for the blind people, ultrasonic sensor
and vibrating motor are used. Blind people will realize the existence of an obstacle
before contact with it. It helps to increase the efficiency for blind people to travel
and also increases the safety. Implementation of a global positioning system enables
a blind person to move to an unfamiliar place without human guidance. It enables a
blind person to live more independently and confidently.

The hardware and software of the project had been successfully integrated and
worked to meet the requirements. The prototype of a smart cane is built and the
function meets the objectives of this project.

49
5.3

Future Work

Some future works are suggested and recommended in order to improve the
smart cane.

The accuracy of the obstacle detection can be increased. Therefore, the

sensitivity of the ultrasonic sensor and vibrating strength of a vibrating motor should
be improved. The ultrasonic sensor can be adjusted to detect fast moving objects.
Moreover, the vibrating strength of the vibrating motor should be more obvious for a
blind person to feel a large difference between near and far obstacles.

The navigation system can be improved by using speech recognition to control

the function of the smart cane. The system should be able to capture speech more
precisely and accurately to decrease the probability of entering the wrong address.

CHAPTER 6

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

6.1

Introduction

This chapter will discuss on the project management. Objective of project

management is to plan and organize the project flow.

6.1.1

Project Schedule

The flow of the project will follow the project Gantt chart to design. Figure 6.1
shows the project Gantt chart for semester 1. In semester 1, the project will focus more
on the research. Ultrasonic sensor and GPS system is studied to know its usage and
architecture design. Moreover, previous work on smart cane is studied to understand
the method on designing smart cane. Figure 6.2 shows the project Gantt chart for
semester 2. For a project Gantt chart in semester 2, the project will focus on the
programming on mobility and navigation system. After that the circuit for the design
is built up. The prototype of a project needs to rigorously test to ensure the function
meets the objective.

51

Figure 6.1: Project Gantt chart (semester 1)

Figure 6.2: Project Gantt chart (semester 2)

52
6.1.2

Cost Estimation

Table 6.1 shows the cost estimation of the project. The most expensive item
of this project is an Intel Atom (DE2i-150) board. However, this board is supplied by
Intel Dreamcatcher. Therefore, the total cost of this project is significantly reduced.
The cost will be spent on material to build the smart cane as listed in the Table 6.1.
The total cost of this project is RM 208.
Table 6.1: Project budget
No

Item

Price (RM)

Intel Atom (DE2i-150)

Available

Arduino UNO

75

Ultrasonic Sensor (HC-SR04)

35

Global Positioning System (SKM53)

90

Vibrating Motor

Total

208

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APPENDIX A

DATASHEET ULTRASONIC SENSOR: HC-SR04

57

APPENDIX B

DATASHEET GLOBAL POSITIONING SYSTEM: SKM53

59