A navigation aid for visually impaired people
Date
2020-05
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Abstract
The United Nation’s 2018 report states that about 1.3 billion people suffer some form
of visual impairment with 36 million of them being blind. The number of blind people is
projected to reach 115 million by 2050. Some of these people find it difficult to move around
because they have difficulty identifying their location, orientation and paths leading to their
destinations in unknown territories. While on the road, they have difficulty detecting and
avoiding obstacles along the road. The white cane and guide dogs have been popularly used by
blind people to guide them along the road and help them avoid obstacles. However, white cane
and dogs cannot communicate to the victim, his or her current location or tell him or her the
kind of obstacle identified.
This report proposed a low-cost system that uses raspberry pi, camera, GPS receiver,
ultrasonic and infrared sensors to help the user identify his or her current location, guide him
or her through a path while detecting and avoiding obstacles. The system also names obstacles
to the user to give him or her more perspective about the surrounding. In this report, only the
location identification and path following are implemented and tested and the results showed a
mix of true and false turns.
Description
Capstone Project submitted to the Department of Engineering, Ashesi University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Engineering, May 2020
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Capstone project
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Keywords
navigation system, persons with disabilities (PWDs), blind