Construction and Analysis of a Novel Wearable Assistive Device for a Visually Impaired Person

Shahid Akram; Ali Mahmood; Ihsan Ullah; Muhammad Tahir Mujtabah; Ali Bin Yasin; Asif Raza Butt; Muhammad Shafique; Sajjad Manzoor

doi:10.1155/2020/6153128

Construction and Analysis of a Novel Wearable Assistive Device for a Visually Impaired Person

Appl Bionics Biomech. 2020 Oct 15:2020:6153128. doi: 10.1155/2020/6153128. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Shahid Akram¹, Ali Mahmood¹, Ihsan Ullah², Muhammad Tahir Mujtabah¹, Ali Bin Yasin¹, Asif Raza Butt¹, Muhammad Shafique³, Sajjad Manzoor¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electrical Engineering, Mirpur University of Science and Technology (MUST), Mirpur, 10250 AJK, Pakistan.
² Department of Electrical Engineering CUI, Abbottabad Campus, Abbottabad, KPK, Pakistan.
³ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Riphah International University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

Abstract

In this paper, we have given the design and development of a new wearable device that assists visually impaired individuals to travel independently and confidently. The newly proposed device is based on range-based sensors and would work effectively in both indoor and outdoor conditions. It is constructed in the form of two separate modules; one module is designed such that it can be attached to the waist belt of the user, and the other module is designed to wear it on ankle of the user. Both the modules communicate with each other using wireless communication and can cover the full front environment of the user. The information about the front environment is transmitted to the user, via headphone, by sending a set of voice instructions, stored in a memory card added in the belt module. In order to use the device in crowd mode, appropriate networking techniques were also implemented in the prototype such that the interference of two or more devices in the close vicinity can be avoided. In the end, effectiveness of the device is analyzed and proved by conducting experiments and obtaining statistical results.