The Development of a Smart Stick with SMS Emergency Location Feature for the Blind

Abstract: As humans tend to be reliant on their sense of sight to gather information about their surroundings, this allows them to feel safe and connected. White canes have been a common solution to visual impairment concerns however it was shown that such tools are still unable to resolve problems pertaining to obstructions on height level. This paper aims to create a smart stick which is able to resolve such concerns while including an emergency button feature that will inform emergency contacts via SMS of the location of the user once pressed. The gathered results will answer the following (a) reliability of the smart stick’s detection of obstructions, (b) effect of the environment to the performance of the device, and (c) effect of the distance between the user and emergency contact to the speed of transmission if the emergency button is pressed. It was found that the smart still is reliable in terms of detection with a high accuracy percentage and is able to determine if stairs are going up or down, the environment has little effect on the performance of the smart stick, and if the distance is farther the speed of transmission is more consistent.

Smart Stick, Visually Impaired/Blind, GPS, Ultrasonic Sensor, Arduino Nano, Visual Assistance, Visual Alternatives

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