Electronic travel aid system for visually impaired people

Abstract

Visually impaired people face unique challenges in their day to day life while navigating in unfamiliar public locations. Using a walking stick relies on trial and error, particularly in unfamiliar locations. Also from a walking stick the user can only identify obstacles which are touching the stick and cannot identify the obstacles which are above his waist height. Electronic Travel Aids (ETAs) are devices that use sensor technology to assist and improve the blind users mobility in terms of safety. In this context, we implement a system whose objective is to give blind users the ability to move around in unfamiliar environment, whether indoor or outdoor, through an interface specifically designed to cater the visual imperfections. This ETA system grants the user the ability to travel independently with an automated alerting system designed for emergencies. The obstacles are detected using image processing and distance sensing through IR sensors. A navigation system was developed to assist the user via web access.