Obstacle and Fall Detection to Guide the Visually Impaired People with Real Time Monitoring

Abstract

To assist the visually impaired people to travel independently without external aid and monitoring real-time location information of these individuals, a wearable electronic device is presented in this paper. The system is able to detect the obstacles in front of the user, humps on the ground, moving objects. In addition, the system detects the sudden fall and informs the user’s guardian. The system is comprised of ultrasonic sensors, a PIR motion sensor, an accelerometer, a smartphone application, a microcontroller, and a data transmission device. The microcontroller transmits the data to the user’s smartphone via Bluetooth module. The smartphone application generates audible instructions to navigate the user properly. The application also updates the current location of the user to keep track and notifies the guardians when the user falls down or in distress. The developed system obtained an accuracy of about 98.34% when the obstacle is 50 cm away from the user. The system is proved to be very effective and efficient for users to navigate using precise speech instructions. Overall, the developed system will make the visually impaired people and their guardian’s feel much safer and confident.