ULTRASONIC BLIND WALKING STICK

ABSTRACT:

Walking on the streets cluttered with street vendors, parked vehicles, animals,
lamp post and many other obstacles creates difficulties even to sighted
people.Imagine how visually impaired people would struggle crossing all over
these hindrance and reach his/her destination.

To assist them, our proposed model Ultrasonic Blind Walking Stick lend hand
acting as a mobility tool. This method of working is followed from bats, which
emits sonar calls into their surroundings and uses the echoes bouncing back
from nearby objects to divert around them. Likewise, our proposed model sends
ultrasonic waves to detect the barriers across them. FID system is used to the
identification the location of current status and tell in speaker.

The blind stick (cane) is integrated with ultrasonic, light and water sensor. This
aids in finding out obstacles, darkness and stagnant water or pit. He/she can find
her cane anywhere near them using remote which is integrated with more
features.

Introduction:

Everyone is too busy with their own works and they barely greet or lend a hand
to help others who face with accidents or any other catastrophe. Life of a
visionless is so wretched that they have to be dependent on their care takers for
their daily chores. To help them walk in a more secured way,
independently,Ultrasonic Blind stick acts as a primary cane. It is an innovative
signalling cane which aids the visionless to walk comfortably in the busy streets
of India.

Using ultrasonic sensor,the barriers can be detected by sending the sensed

signal to the microcontroller which process the data and sends signal to the
buzzer, if the barrier is too close to the person or cane. This helps them to avoid
collision with the object. As people move the cane left and right when they
walk, the sound from one side mean they should move the other side.

Another major crisis for them is stepping onto stagnant water and dirty
water pits which is another form of intolerable situation. The ultrasonic sensor is
configured in such a way that it also detects water and sends signal to micro
controller which in return sends signal to buzzer. The buzzer sound for obstacle
and water varies which helps them to identify.

Added feature to this cane is light detection. As it is impossible for the

person to identify darkness, light sensor helps them to notify about the darkness
of the surrounding. It is integrated in such a way that they can find their cane
anywhere in the room or if misplaced using remote control.

Wireless remote, easy to carry, helps them to locate their cane just by
pressing the button which sends signal to the microcontroller in the stick.

It triggers the buzzer which helps them to find the cane. Thus the blind stick
acts as a walk assistant helping them to walk independently.

Existing model and its Disadvantage:

Blind people have used canes as mobility tools for centuries, but it was not until
after World War I. The white cane was introduced by a photographer James
Biggs who became blind after an accident. He found this to avoid minor
accidents during his walk.

They had disadvantage due to the appearance of the model.Earlier model was
designed in such a way that the end of the stick has a ball situated on the
damper which produces an acoustic signal when touched by an object. These
have the disadvantages that they are rigid and produce shock for the hands
becoming annoying and tedious.
They may also stump over the pedestrians. They can be only used as a normal
stick which clings to the object and produces signal.

Proposed model and its Advantages:

Proposed model is flexible with a wireless remote, which makes it easy to

carry around. Existing model made people to suffer by stepping onto water
puddles. This is rectified and processed in such a way that the sensor alerts the
person about the puddle by producing buzzer. The added advantage to our
existing model is the sensor reacting to presence of water and light along with
obstacles.
Block Diagram:

Specification and Representation:

 Atmega 328 Microcontroller:

The high-performance Atmel 8-bit AVR RISC-based microcontroller combines

32KB ISP flash memory with read-while-write capabilities, 1KB EEPROM,
2KB SRAM, 23 general purpose I/O lines, 32 general purpose working
registers, three flexible timer/counters with compare modes, internal and
external interrupts,serial programmable USART, a byte-oriented 2-wire serial
interface, SPI serial port, 6-channel 10-bit A/D converter (8-channels in TQFP
and QFN/MLF packages), programmable watchdog timer with internal
oscillator, and five software selectable power saving modes. The device
operates between 1.8-5.5 volts.

By executing powerful instructions in a single clock cycle, the device achieves

throughputs approaching 1 MIPS per MHz, balancing power consumption and
processing speed.
Pin description:

Pin
Description Function
Number
1 PC6 Reset
2 PD0 Digital Pin (RX)
3 PD1 Digital Pin (TX)
4 PD2 Digital Pin
5 PD3 Digital Pin (PWM)
6 PD4 Digital Pin
7 Vcc Positive Voltage (Power)
8 GND Ground
9 XTAL 1 Crystal Oscillator
10 XTAL 2 Crystal Oscillator
11 PD5 Digital Pin (PWM)
12 PD6 Digital Pin (PWM)
13 PD7 Digital Pin
 14 PB0 Digital Pin
15 PB1 Digital Pin (PWM)
16 PB2 Digital Pin (PWM)
17 PB3 Digital Pin (PWM)
18 PB4 Digital Pin
19 PB5 Digital Pin
Positive voltage for ADC
20 AVCC
(power)
21 AREF Reference Voltage
22 GND Ground
23 PC0 Analog Input
24 PC1 Analog Input
25 PC2 Analog Input
26 PC3 Analog Input
27 PC4 Analog Input
28 PC5 Analog Input

Function:

As stated before, 20 of the pins function as I/O ports. This means they can
function as an input to the circuit or as output. Whether they are input or output
is set in the software. 14 of the pins are digital pins, of which 6 can function to
give PWM output. 6 of the pins are for analog input/output.

2 of the pins are for the crystal oscillator. This is to provide a clock pulse for the
Atmega chip. A clock pulse is needed for synchronization so that
communication can occur in synchrony between the Atmega chip and a device
that it is connected to.
 The chip needs power so 2 of the pins, Vcc and GND, provide it power so that it
can operate. The Atmega328 is a low-power chip, so it only needs between 1.8-
5.5V of power to operate.

The Atmega328 chip has an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) inside of it. This
must be or else the Atmega328 wouldn't be capable of interpreting analog
signals. Because there is an ADC, the chip can interpret analog input, which is
why the chip has 6 pins for analog input. The ADC has 3 pins set aside for it to
function- AVCC, AREF, and GND. AVCC is the power supply, positive voltage,
that for the ADC. The ADC needs its own power supply in order to work. GND
is the power supply ground. AREF is the reference voltage that the ADC uses to
convert an analog signal to its corresponding digital value. Analog voltages
higher than the reference voltage will be assigned to a digital value of 1, while
analog voltages below the reference voltage will be assigned the digital value of
0. Since the ADC for the Atmega328 is a 10-bit ADC, meaning it produces a 10-
bit digital value, it converts an analog signal to its digital value, with the
AREF value being a reference for which digital values are high or low. Thus, a
portrait of an analog signal is shown by this digital value; thus, it is its digital
correspondent value.

The last pin is the RESET pin. This allows a program to be rerun and start over.

And this sums up the pinout of an Atmega328 chip.

Ultrasonic Sensors:

Ultrasonic sensors are based on measuring the properties of sound waves with
frequency above the human audible range. They are based on three physical
principles: time of flight, the Doppler effect, and the attenuation of sound
 waves. Ultrasonic sensors are non-intrusive in that they do not require physical
contact with their target, and can detect certain clear or shiny targets otherwise
obscured to some vision-based sensors. On the other hand, their measurements
are very sensitive to temperature and to the angle of the target.

They typically operate by generating a high-frequency pulse of sound, and then

receiving and evaluating the properties of the echo pulse.
Three different properties of the received echo pulse may be evaluated, for
different sensing purposes. They are:

Time of flight (for sensing distance)

Doppler shift (for sensing velocity)
Amplitude attenuation (for sensing distance, directionality, or attenuation
coefficient)

Very often, separate transmitting and receiving transducers are placed

immediately next to each other, housed as a single unit. (The PING))) Range
Finder, Omega flowmeter and Migatron high-accuracy sensor below are all
designed this way.) In these cases, the distance calculated will be twice the
distance from the sensor to the target.

Doppler Shift
 When a wave reflects off of a moving object, its frequency is shifted by an
amount proportional to the velocity of the object. This fact can be exploited in
ultrasonic sensing by having the receiver measure not the time of flight but the
frequency of the returning echo pulse. Knowing fe and fr, the frequency of the
emitted and received pulse, respectively, the velocity v of the target may be
calculated:
fe - fr = 2 fe (v / c) cos(A)4)
where A is the angle between the target's and the pulse's lines of motion.

Light sensor:

A LightSensor is something that a robot can use to detect the current ambient
light level - i.e. how bright/dark it is. There are a range of different types of light
sensors, including 'Photoresistors', 'Photodiodes', and 'Phototransistors'. The
sensor included in the BOE Shield-Bot kit, and the one we will be using, is
called a Phototransistor.
 Circuit diagram of a phototransistor

We can utilize the phototransistor's unique properties by plugging it into an

Analog Port.

Buzzer:

A buzzer or beeper is an audio signalling device, which may

be mechanical, electromechanical, or piezoelectric. Typical uses of buzzers and
beepers include alarm devices, timers, and confirmation of user input such as a
mouse click or keystroke
 RF Transmitter and Resistor:
The RF module, as the name suggests, operates at Radio Frequency. The
corresponding frequency range varies between 30 kHz & 300 GHz. In this RF
system, the digital data is represented as variations in the amplitude of carrier
wave. This kind of modulation is known as Amplitude Shift Keying (ASK).

Transmission through RF is better than IR (infrared) because of many reasons.

Firstly, signals through RF can travel through larger distances making it suitable
for long range applications. Also, while IR mostly operates in line-of-sight
mode, RF signals can travel even when there is an obstruction between
transmitter & receiver. Next, RF transmission is more strong and reliable than
IR transmission. RF communication uses a specific frequency unlike IR signals
which are affected by other IR emitting sources.

This RF module comprises of an RF Transmitter and an RF Receiver. The

transmitter/receiver (Tx/Rx) pair operates at a frequency of 434 MHz. An RF
transmitter receives serial data and transmits it wirelessly through RF through
its antenna connected at pin4. The transmission occurs at the rate of 1Kbps -
10Kbps.The transmitted data is received by an RF receiver operating at the
same frequency as that of the transmitter.
The RF module is often used alongwith a pair of encoder/decoder. The encoder
is used for encoding parallel data for transmission feed while reception is
decoded by a decoder. HT12E-HT12D, HT640-HT648, etc. are some
commonly used encoder/decoder pair ICs.

Pin Diagram:

Pin Description:

RF Transmitter

Pin Function Name

No
1 Ground (0V) Ground
2 Serial data input pin Data
3 Supply voltage; 5V Vcc
4 Antenna output pin ANT

RF Receiver

Pin
Function Name
No
1 Ground (0V) Ground
2 Serial data output pin Data
3 Linear output pin; not connected NC
4 Supply voltage; 5V Vcc
5 Supply voltage; 5V Vcc
6 Ground (0V) Ground
7 Ground (0V) Ground
8 Antenna input pin ANT
 Diodes:

A diode is a device which only allows unidirectional flow of current if operated

within a rated specified voltage level. A diode only blocks current in the reverse
direction while the reverse voltage is within a limited range otherwise reverse
barrier breaks and the voltage at which this breakdown occurs is called reverse
breakdown voltage.
The diode acts as a valve in the electronic and electrical circuit. A P-N junction
is the simplest form of the diode which behaves as ideally short circuit when it
is in forward biased and behaves as ideally open circuit when it is in the reverse
biased. Beside simple PN junction diodes, there are different types of diodes
although the fundamental principle is more or less same.
So a particular arrangement of diodes can convert AC to pulsating DC, and
hence, it is sometimes also called as a rectifier. The name diode is derived from
"di-ode" which means a device having two electrodes.

Capacitors:

The capacitor is a component which has the ability or capacity to store energy
in the form of an electrical charge producing a potential difference (Static
Voltage) across its plates, much like a small rechargeable battery.
 There are many different kinds of capacitors available from very small capacitor
beads used in resonance circuits to large power factor correction capacitors, but
they all do the same thing, they store charge.

Resistor:

Resistors are electronic components which have a specific, never-

changing electrical resistance. The resistors resistance limits the flow of
electrons through a circuit.

They are passive components, meaning they only consume power (and cant
generate it). Resistors are usually added to circuits where they
complement active components like op-amps, microcontrollers, and
other integrated circuits. Commonly resistors are used to limit current, divide
voltages, and pull-up I/O lines.

Voltage Regulator:

A voltage regulator is a voltage stabilizer that is designed to automatically

stabilize a constant voltage level. A voltage regulator circuit is also used to
 change or stabilize the voltage level according to the necessity of the circuit.
Thus, a voltage regulator is used for two reasons:-

1. To regulate or vary the output voltage of the circuit.

2. To keep the output voltage constant at the desired value in-spite of
variations in the supply voltage or in the load current.
To know more on the basics of this subject, you may also refer Regulated Power
Supply.
Voltage regulators find their applications in computers, alternators, power
generator plants where the circuit is used to control the output of the plant.
Voltage regulators may be classified as electromechanical or electronic. It can
also be classified as AC regulators or DC regulators.

LED:

A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor device that emits visible light

when an electric current passes through it. The light is not particularly bright,
but in most LEDs it is monochromatic, occurring at a single wavelength. The
output from an LED can range from red (at a wavelength of approximately 700
nanometres) to blue-violet (about 400 nanometres). Some LEDs emit infrared
(IR) energy (830 nanometres or longer); such a device is known as an infrared-
emitting diode (IRED).
Conclusion:

Thus Ultra cane provides narrow-beam accurate navigation that allows a skilled
user to proceed at normal walking speed. It helps you to navigate your way
rather than simply avoid hitting things.