ENHANCING MOBILITY AND SAFETY FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED INDIVIDUALS THROUGH THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ULTRASONIC WALKING STICK

ABSTRACT According to the famous philosopher and scientist Aristotle, our knowledge about the outside world depends on five sense organs and sight is one of those five organs. And visually-impaired are those unfortunate people who are completely or partially suffering with eye sight issues. Blindness is a state of lacking the visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors. The partial blindness represents the lack of integration in the growth of the optic nerve or visual center of the eye and total blindness is the full absence of the visual light perception. According to the survey of World Health Organization (WHO) and International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) [1], approximately 285 million people around the world are visually –impaired among which 39 million are completely blind. Blind stick is a special device used by visually disabled people for centuries. But in recent times Electronic Travel Aids (ETAs) with sensors and sound systems are designed for improved navigation of blind people. Here we proposed an advanced blind stick that allows visually challenged people to navigate using advanced technology like ultrasonic sensors. We already know about traditional blind sticks. But the question that comes into our mind is that how this system can give idea about the surrounding by using ultrasonic sensors and detectors. The advantage of our project is that it can detect any obstacle with the help of ultrasonic sensors. Thus it will help blind people when they are walking outside from their home.