Smart Path Guidance Mobile Aid for Visually Disabled Persons

A traditional blind-navigation cane mostly used by a visually impaired person is not very appropriate mainly due to narrow search area. While a conventional cane warns of changes along the ground, it does not warn of other walking hazards and objects above a person's waist. There are many electronics based blind-navigation devices employ a voice guided GPS (global positioning system) and/or complex high-order processor. It is apparent that the costs of these devices are too high that a common visually impaired people cannot afford them. In addition, a kind of previous arts is difficult to handle due to the weight, volume and functions incubated with basic purpose. Therefore, these types of advanced navigation systems are difficult to be commercialized. The purpose of this research is to design and develop a smart path guidance system for the blind and visually impaired, particularly the mobile aid to carry by hand, contains a smart sensor logic system. An appropriate model has developed for the selected design with embedding fuzzy logic decision. A presented solution is also tested for various condition inputs to verify the system's behavior. Through several experiments, the sensors are calibrated to increase the accuracy of decision. The presented prototype enables the blind person to walk freely in an unfamiliar environment.