indoor navigation system for blind person

[HIREN DAVE]

Hello friends,

I want to design a circuit for blind person i.e. indoor building navigation. I found that sometimes it is very difficult to find path in a building to a common location for blind person. GPS can't be used for this purpose. So what technology should i use? How it is possible? Which is low cost solution?


thanks in advance.

 

[shatruddha]

you can use a sensor network including distance sensor, IR sensors, etc to come up with a solution, otherwise you can use a kinect and develop your environment around it.
For a better performance, you can create a 3d visualisation and accordingly feed commands to the user to take directions, Just the way its done for robots.
I would strongly recommend you to take a look at SLAM(simultaneous locomotion and mapping). Really cook stuff.

 

[BradtheRad]

There is a device known as a 'Refreshable Braille Display'.



Suppose one of these were combined with a receiver, in one unit, for a blind person to carry in the hand.

It would pick up broadcasts from transmitters located throughout a building, broadcasting what floor they are located on, and whether it is the north-east-south-west end.

The receiver picks up the radio broadcast, and raises or lowers pins on the handheld Braille mechanism, to display the floor number, etc.

A refreshable Braille display is expensive at this time. The link above proposes a technology which is less expensive.

 

[kripacharya]

I think by far the best (in terms of simplicity, cost, effectiveness etc etc) would be a system built based on Sonar or the bat method.

The basic idea here is to generate an ultrasonic signal - either continous or pulsed or chirped - and pick up all reflections with dual receivers (ultrasonic of course) : viz stereophonic.

Now downconvert these to audible range & output into headphones/ earplugs. The entire contraption can be made into a headband, or even into a pair of (thickish) eyeglasses, or in a cap or something similar. This way the user gets the reflections from the direction he is "looking".

Optically challenged persons are usually audible enhanced, and after some learning time, such a system could well provide the user with an almost "visible" map of their surroundings.

I plan to make such a system myself .. soon soon.