SmartCane for blind people


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ITU – Young Innovators Competition 2014 Internet Of Things Challenge Orges Ndrecka Tirana, Albania

SmartCane for blind people In the world there are more than 161 million blind people and this number is growing unfortunately. Blind people need constant help from other sane persons but not always someone is there to help them. The only helping ‘friend’ they got is their cane! In nowadays, are manufactured mostly ordinary canes or technological canes with less features than my proposed cane. These canes are no big help to the blind people and sometimes request many other advanced infrastructure systems to fulfill properly their features and this makes them really expensive and less reachable from blind people not living on developed countries! Other alternative solutions like mobile phones with GPS directions option are almost impossible to be used by blind people (especially on touch-screen mobiles). Though my proposed solution is ‘SmartCane’, a technological new generation ‘white cane’ for blind people.

1. The cane will have GPS locator and gives directions through the Bluetooth headphone to the blind person. The city maps are pre-loaded into cane’s memory. It will come with a set with a pair of dark glasses/headphone + mic. The glasses can be similar like the already existing smart-glasses in the market but off course will be customized for blind people. 1.1

The glasses will have voice assistant and speech recognition, the person should just have to give to the direction to the cane and the cane will guide him by giving directions into headphones. 1.2 It will notify the user via various sound notifications when the user will have to cross the road (in order to ask people around for help) or about any obstacles few meters upfront – in order to avoid crashing with objects/people. 1.3 It’s voice can be that of a female/male, depending on preferences of user. The commands will be “friendly”, calling the user by name or nickname (this will be more fun and friendly for blind kids, the cane may call them “champion”, “dude’ etc.). 1.4 Extended feature: In indoor areas where GPS lacks connectivity, a device like beacon with preloaded planimetry of the building can interact with the cane about the users position in the building (e.g.: bathroom, kitchen etc.). the cane will get the notifications from the beacon and transmit it to the user on the headphone.

ITU Internet Of Things Challenge - Orges Ndrecka

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2 The cane and glasses/earphone/mic set will have rechargeable batteries via wireless charging and power outlet cable. Via wireless charging the user can easily recharge the cane – when the cane approaches to the wireless charging dock, it will signal it with a typical sound so the user gets notified.

2.1 If there isn’t a wireless charger dock nearby the power cable can be used (in this case with help from sane people). Extended future use of NFC feature: 2.2 The NFC can be used also to open doors since the blind people have difficulties on finding the lock. This can be done only fingerprint recognizing on the cane which interacts via NFC with the doors lock. The NFC can be used also to interact with traffic lights (instead of pressing the button of the traffic light for more commodity) (Off course these are extra features that require modification and adaptation of existing systems)

3 It can be a lifesaver because will have a special “Panic button”, pushed by user when he thinks he is lost, needs urgent medical help and can’t yell for help for various reasons. After pressing the ‘panic button’, the cane will release a high pitch alarm sound from the incorporated boxers on the cane and can be heard from a few meters away alerting other people around that the blind man needs help. 3.1 Via the speech recognition and voice assistant the user can call or send a SMS notification (preloaded text format e.g.: ‘I need help’ etc.) to a relative or hospital for help –the earphone will have incorporated microphone that interact with the cane (which can have a SIM card slot) 3.2 In case of a problem the SMS or phone call can be used to notify special centers that do offer care services for blind people (in case the blind person has no relatives available to help at the moment). The center can monitor the users via internet data connectivity with coordinates taken from GPS. 3.3 A dedicated center service for blind people can send someone at the location of the blind person asking for help if a familiar or friend can’t come to help. Off course dedicated centers that can monitor via internet data connectivity of the cane and can send immediately a person at site to help the blind user, requires extra infrastructure investment and market study (ROI etc.) but it’s an extra feature to be highly considered.

4 A device similar to RADAR or SONAR on the cane will help to avoid obstacles in specific range near the cane – to avoid crashes. Notification for obstacles will be via specific sounds transmitted on the earphones of the user.

5 The cane can have a roller device at the top of it that is statically stable. When the cane’s top is rolled on the ground while walking, it can help to generate power to charge the cane’s battery or can be used to power directly the various modules of the cane (e.g.: GPS module, SONAR etc.)

ITU Internet Of Things Challenge - Orges Ndrecka

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ITU Internet Of Things Challenge - Orges Ndrecka

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