Smart Sight … A Vision of Hope
I have designed an Engineering Innovation. I have created this innovative model because I believe that this would benefit handicapped people in a life-changing way. In short, I have wired and coded a circuit to sense if you are about to hit an object. The circuit will react by sending a signal to the Buzzer Module. This signal will create a buzzing sound effect that will alert the person that he is about to hit an object. The buzzer frequency will increase when it is closer to the object. Using an Arduino Uno Board, an Ultrasonic Sensor, and a Buzzer, I have created this model to help the visually-impaired with their daily lives. I did some research and found out that there are a lot of drawbacks to the current technology that blind people are using right now. Some drawbacks that these tools have are that they are easily breakable, unhygienic, and very expensive. For this reason, I spent some time talking to a partially-blind woman. I asked what she does in her daily life, and what is challenging for her. Things that were challenging for her included dodging sharp corners in walls, moving around railings, and making sure doors were open before walking into them. I noticed one thing in common with all the challenges that she listed. They all required her to dodge, avoid, or go around something. After taking this data, I decided to design a product that would make her life easier. After coding and wiring the model, I wanted to test the efficiency and accuracy of the model. Therefore I designed an obstacle detection test. Ideally, there were two parts to the test. One part was tested indoors, and the other, outdoors. I placed different obstacles a meter in front of the volunteer and asked her to walk across the object in her way using the Blind Glasses. Before I tested each obstacle, it was important that I didn’t tell the volunteer what obstacle it was. I started the timer when the volunteer was at least a meter away from the obstacle and stopped it when she successfully crossed the obstacle by a meter. I added up the time she took to complete each obstacle, obtaining a final time for each course. When each course was repeated, I also changed the placement of the objects. My volunteer first went across the indoor obstacle course I designed with a walking cane made for the blind. Items in the course included regular items you might bump into such as chairs, a bed railing, a clothes cabinet, an open kitchen cabinet, wall corners, and finally an open door. After this, I went outside and tested her with different obstacles. Objects in the outside course included a pole, a tree, a sidewalk curb, a parked car, a fire hydrant, and a real person. After adding up all the final times, I concluded that the Smart Glasses were more efficient than the walking cane.
