Design and develop visual aids for people with visual impairments with Arduino

The ultrasonic distance sensor's power consumption is small, the cost is low, and has the very excellent performance in the distance detection, but at the same time many people initiates the attempt to use the ultrasonic sensor for the person who has the vision obstacle to design develops the auxiliary visual equipment the idea ...

In recent years, as the open source hardware is hot, more and more powerful and low-cost development boards have emerged in the market. And many designs have chosen to use Ariduino to develop the "guide blind" device.

This hat from Netizen station420 hand, uses Arduino Uno, ultrasonic sensor and buzzer and so on component. Through the sensor can detect whether there are obstructions ahead, and through the buzzer to send different frequencies of the sound to feedback and the distance between the obstacles to remind the wearer whether there is danger.

The structure of the whole device is very simple, the ultrasonic sensor embedded in the hat of the duck cap, equipped with Arduino, buzzer and battery, such as the main electronic devices of the "black box" hanging in the back of the hat.

When used, the wearer only needs to "wear" a hat, and does not require any other tedious steps.

Of course this, although the main module of the device is just a Arduino Uno and ultrasonic sensor, but with the battery, shell and other components, the entire device weighs about 10 pounds.

It's hard to imagine the comfort of people wearing this hat, even if optimized, and there's still a lot of room for them to install on their hats.

called "Halo"

The designer of this set of equipment is from North Virginia State Annandale netizen polymythic, compare with above "guide blind" hat, this equipment's function is relatively more perfect, but in use also relatively complex.

The user needs to put the device on the head, the sensor located on the forehead can detect the road ahead for the wearer, and then use the motor vibration in different directions to feed back the road information and inform the wearer whether the route is smooth or not. So even blind people can learn the exact road conditions on their way through the device.

The whole equipment is mainly composed of Arduino Mega 2560 and five ultrasonic distance sensors with motor modules. The five sensors are set in different directions so that the ultrasound can cover the 180-degree range ahead, and then detect and feedback the "barrier information" on the route.

The coverage angle of ultrasonic detection of the device can be enlarged by adjusting the position of the sensor or by increasing the number of sensors when necessary. But too much of the module will increase the use of this device is difficult, after all, too slight vibration of the wearer to obtain accurate information to judge, and too strong vibration, the number of times is difficult to endure.

Perhaps we should choose some better ways to achieve this idea, such as wearing the way to wear in the hands instead. This design, in addition to the ability to guide the blind more flexible, but also make the use of difficulty greatly reduced and improve comfort.

The device was designed and developed by Mizchief100, a friend from Chicago, to help visually impaired people with disabilities to understand the environment around them. Users can learn about the situation around them by finding out in advance how far they are from the surrounding objects.

The entire "Aid viewer" can be fixed on the wrist, the wearer in the "groping" action, configured in the front of the device is the ultrasonic sensor will sweep the palm will touch the place.

Before the wearer really touches the "barrier", the ultrasonic sensor can be used to anticipate the distance between the obstacles and the distance through the buzzer, and the length of the sound will be sent to the wearer.

The production of this "aid viewer" mainly uses Arduino Micro, buzzer and distance sensor. The entire device requires few components, simple structure, small size and very lightweight, this design even if worn on the wrist the impact of the activities of the Ministry is very small.

The Handsight is a "guide glove" fitted with an ultrasonic sensor and infra-red reflection sensor, in addition to the above mentioned multiple use of ultrasonic "guide blind", this glove fitted with the infrared reflex sensor allows it to switch mode to provide more features.

In addition to allowing the wearer to feel the concrete shape of the object before contacting it so that the user can evaluate what is to be touched, the glove may even help the wearer to perceive properties such as the color and temperature of the object.

The glove, which uses the Arduino Pro mini 328, is a custom version of the Arduino Mini, with better scalability. The designer has also prepared many extensions for this glove, including "massages" and "typing".

This module was designed by Ishamsul, a netizen from Melbourne, Australia, to measure the distance between obstacles. However, this module can be adjusted by power to change the effective distance measurement distance, so can adapt to different road conditions and environment.

The device is composed mainly of the Arduino Nano 3.0 and ultrasonic sensors, although the function is single but in the distance measurement has more sensitive performance. And as a group of modules, suitable for two times in the shell design, to adapt to wear in various parts of the body.

By customizing the PCB, I can further optimize the size of the module to improve the utility of this device.

And after further optimization of the module is very easy to carry out two design, the module is packaged with the shell, we can according to different needs for its different shells, different lengths of bandages, or even according to the need to be embedded in clothing.