Visual impairment and Blindness Assistance

It is difficult, nearly impossible, for blind people to walk without an  aid .Even with an aid such as a white cane or a guide  dog  can  be  sometimes  inconvenient,  uncomfortable, and perhaps inaccurate in avoiding obstacles.According to World Hea

Project Title

Visual impairment and Blindness Assistance

Project Area of Specialization

Artificial Intelligence

Project Summary

It is difficult, nearly impossible, for blind people to walk without an  aid .Even with an aid such as a white cane or a guide  dog  can  be  sometimes  inconvenient,  uncomfortable, and perhaps inaccurate in avoiding obstacles.According to World Health Organization(WHO)  report  there  are 285  million visually impaired people among which 39 million are totally blind.The estimated number of blind people in Pakistan is 1.14 million.

In order to overcome this problem the idea we came up with is an Integrated Machine Learning System which allows the Blind Victims to identify and classify Real Time Based Common day-to-day Objects and generate voice feedbacks and calculates distance which produces warnings whether he/she is very close or far away from the object. The same system can be used for Obstacle Detection Mechanism.

Project Objectives

The project consists of the following objectives:

• To design and implement the AI based project for efficient and assisstant for visually impaired and blind people in the general masses using open-source technologies to save economic resources.
• To achieve object detection and distance measurement using image processing
• To develope an economic and efficient substitutiion for the nedical industry.

Project Implementation Method

• Sensor Selection :As this all project is based on detection so its first part of the design to find a correct sensor that fulfills our requirement and can easily available in the market. For this, our efforts are split into looking at verity possible type of sensors.

Ultrasonic Sensor (HC-SR04) will discharge/emit waves and use the distance formula to calculate the distance of reflection of wave which stricken back from object.

Laser distance sensor GY-530 The long range laser sensors are optoelectronic sensors designed for non-contact measurement of distance, displacement and speed. They feature a large measuring range from 0.5m to 3000m.

• Raspberry Pi Camera Module: The camera will keep capturing pictures in the form of frames in real time and store in the memory of raspberry pi.
• Headset  for audio feedback with distanced object
• Microcontroller Selection :There are  several microcontrollers  available  to  operate ultrasonic sensor HC-SR04 like Arduino UNO, TI MSP430,Raspberry Pi  Model  B+, Arduino Mega ETC. Based on  our experience,  requirement  and  research  Arduino  UNO  R3  is the best. 

• ARDUINO UNO: This will be used to synchronize the distance calculated from sensor and integrate it with raspberry pi.

• RASPBERRY PI-4(4GB/8GB): This is the main hub of our project will have data trained in AI, which will process the image taken, identify the objects with classes we trained(4 classes we will have trained due the inefficient processor we have available currently), take delayed input from Ardiuno Uno at certain intervals to calculate the distance and integrate it with the object detected, output the results using the gTTS (google Text To Speech Library in Python) to the headset provided to the individual.

Benefits of the Project

Following are the benefits of our project:

• The main goal of our project is to reach out the blind and assist them in every possible way.
• The project we are working on will be portable, as most of the project requires laptop or Pc to get along with but it our case we are making it feasible for the blind person to go around without any supervision(i.e for us it's not a big thing but they also want to feel independent and self-sufficient as most of us do).
• This technology, which benefits from lightweight design, encompasses a wide range of virtual perceptions.
• Their innovative wearable, empowers the visually impaired with navigational independence through touch-based directions and haptic feedback. This assistive technology allows users to be guided without having to look at their phones and enables the blind to "see" the world.
• Previously projects with similar aim has been made but contains high delay rate. Our project will overcome that flaw and produce the best results through its working.
• Less expensive than the approaches made in past. 

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The proposed system comprises of the following final deliverable:

• Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB/8GB) – Python, OpenCV for computer vision and Image Processing
• Tensorflow for collection of workflows to develop and train models.
• Raspberry Pi Camera Module for capturing images of objects
• Headset for audio feedback 
• Ultrasonic Sensor/Laser Sensor to calculate the distance between the user and the next upcoming object
• Cane(Optional) to which sensor will be attached in order to calculate distance along with a vibrator/buzzer to alert the person. 

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Core Industry

Medical

Other Industries

Education , IT , Health

Core Technology

Artificial Intelligence(AI)

Other Technologies

Wearables and Implantables

Sustainable Development Goals

Good Health and Well-Being for People, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com