Everyone has the right to receive knowledge, information about the world and exchange it. A person perceives with the help of vision >70% of the information, but people with visual impairments should fill this gap with the help of hearing, smell and touch. Moving around the city for visually impaired people, given the transport, road conditions, many obstacles, and traffic, is quite problematic. The cane can detect obstacles from no more than a meter, which imposes greater restrictions. Also, these people have psychological features and it should be considered that the device should not distract the user, do not close the auditory canal and it should not allow dangerous situations.
The aim of the research work is the development of a prototype designed to ensure the safe movement of visually impaired people in the urban environment and indoors, analysis of the developed system, writing the algorithm of work. During development, it is required to create not only an effective device but also convenient to use, including by elderly people and children.
The relevance of this work is to develop a device with improved technical and economic parameters in comparison with analogs, improving existing methods. There is no need to develop devices with already achieved characteristics. The price of the developing device is also important.
An expected result of the research is the creation of a prototype device for visually impaired people, which builds a map of the room around the user, determines the type of objects and the distance to obstacles. The obstacle here is the signal obtained by one or more distance sensors and be relevant after post-processing. This signal should correspond to distances in the range of 10-400 cm.
The prototype should define such types of objects: vehicles (bus, truck, bicycle, car), living objects (cat, dog, person), household objects (cup, fork, knife, spoon, chair, dining table, bed, cell phone, microwave, sofa, sink, monitor), and outdoor objects (traffics light, bench). The device is a multi-layer waterproof vest, inside of which electronic components and sensors will be located.
The user must receive information about the obstacles described above, the distance to them, the direction and battery level of the device. Detected objects should be determined with a probability of >90%, the weight of the device (including the vest) should not exceed 3 kg (about 3-5% of the person’s weight are the comfortable weight for frequent wearing without experiencing fatigue, for example, a person weighing 60 kg was chosen); continuous operation of the device should be >3 hours (in big cities the one-way road is capable to take 1 hour and more, so the device should provide at least round trip for user).
This work was devoted to the development of a device that facilitates the qualitative
movement of people with visual impairments.
In the first chapter, an analysis of existing solutions was carried out, the advantages
and disadvantages of modern developments were noted. The goal of the study and its
objectives. The concept of the device is determined and the relevance of development
at the present time is confirmed.
Based on a certain concept, components were selected for the implementation of the
module. An algorithm for recognizing given types of objects has been developed. An
algorithm has been developed that reads indicators from ultrasonic sensors and an
accelerometer, as well as an algorithm for constructing a room map.
According to certain criteria, the layout of the device is selected. The operation time
for the device is about 3 hours.
Summing up the work, it’s possible to say that it fully complied with the requirements
of the technical specifications.
