Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Nov 18;22(22):8914.
doi: 10.3390/s22228914.

IoT Enabled Intelligent Stick for Visually Impaired People for Obstacle Recognition

Muhammad Siddique Farooq  1 , Imran Shafi  2 , Harris Khan  2 , Isabel De La Torre Díez  3 , Jose Breñosa  4   5   6 , Julio César Martínez Espinosa  4   7   8 , Imran Ashraf  9
Affiliations

IoT Enabled Intelligent Stick for Visually Impaired People for Obstacle Recognition

Muhammad Siddique Farooq et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

This paper presents the design, development, and testing of an IoT-enabled smart stick for visually impaired people to navigate the outside environment with the ability to detect and warn about obstacles. The proposed design employs ultrasonic sensors for obstacle detection, a water sensor for sensing the puddles and wet surfaces in the user's path, and a high-definition video camera integrated with object recognition. Furthermore, the user is signaled about various hindrances and objects using voice feedback through earphones after accurately detecting and identifying objects. The proposed smart stick has two modes; one uses ultrasonic sensors for detection and feedback through vibration motors to inform about the direction of the obstacle, and the second mode is the detection and recognition of obstacles and providing voice feedback. The proposed system allows for switching between the two modes depending on the environment and personal preference. Moreover, the latitude/longitude values of the user are captured and uploaded to the IoT platform for effective tracking via global positioning system (GPS)/global system for mobile communication (GSM) modules, which enable the live location of the user/stick to be monitored on the IoT dashboard. A panic button is also provided for emergency assistance by generating a request signal in the form of an SMS containing a Google maps link generated with latitude and longitude coordinates and sent through an IoT-enabled environment. The smart stick has been designed to be lightweight, waterproof, size adjustable, and has long battery life. The overall design ensures energy efficiency, portability, stability, ease of access, and robust features.

Keywords: Internet of Things; biomedical device; obstacle detection; smart stick.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Working of the ultrasonic sensor.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Block diagram of electronic circuitry for the smart stick.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Functional flow diagram of the intelligent stick.
Figure 4
Figure 4
(a) Electronic circuitry placement; (b) Control box design; (c) Design of the adjustable IoT-enabled Intelligent Stick.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Ultrasonic sensors’ placement on the smart stick.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Ultrasonic sensors’ placement.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Water detection using copper terminals.
Figure 8
Figure 8
GSM with controller for sending location.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Experimental setup of the intelligent stick for the visually impaired.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Schematic diagram of the proposed design.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Location sharing SMS through GSM.
Figure 12
Figure 12
ThingSpeak IoT platform location sharing.
Figure 13
Figure 13
(a) Motorcycle detected using OpenCV; (b) Cars detected using OpenCV; (c) Chairs detected using OpenCV.
Figure 14
Figure 14
(a) Lab testing of the stick; (b) Side Obstacle Detected; (c) Front Obstacle Detected.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Wolrd Health Organization Blindness and Vision Impairment. 2021. [(accessed on 29 March 2022)]. Available online: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/blindness-and-visual-im....
    1. Roseli N.H.M., Aziz N., Mutalib A.A. The enhancement of assistive courseware for visually impaired learners; Proceedings of the IEEE 2010 International Symposium on Information Technology; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 15–17 June 2010; pp. 1–6.
    1. Kumar S.S., Abarna J., Lavanya G., Lakshmi S.N. Embedded glove to aid the visually impaired. Int. J. Electr. Electron. Data Commun. 2013;1:6–11.
    1. Wahab M.H.A., Talib A.A., Kadir H.A., Johari A., Noraziah A., Sidek R.M., Mutalib A.A. Smart cane: Assistive cane for visually-impaired people. arXiv. 20111110.5156
    1. Gbenga D.E., Shani A.I., Adekunle A.L. Smart walking stick for visually impaired people using ultrasonic sensors and Arduino. Int. J. Eng. Technol. 2017;9:3435–3447. doi: 10.21817/ijet/2017/v9i5/170905302. - DOI