Development of an ultrasonic smart blind stick with video and remote tracking
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Traditionally, visually impaired people use a stick to find obstacles that are ahead of them. This stick is ineffective in many ways thereby exposing the user to several challenges. This paper describes an ultrasonic blind stick with an ESP32-Cam module as a form of navigation and security. The smart blind stick allows visually challenged pe ople to navigate with ease. It uses two ultrasonic sensors to detect obstacles ahead, one attached to the upper part of the stick and the second installed at an inclined angle downward to sense elevated surface. Once an obstacle is sensed, the voice module alerts the users by playing a prerecorded message through an earphone. It will also sound a different prerecorded message when a water body is detected. The system has an integrated feature to help the blind locate the stick if misplaced with the aid of a wireless RF-based remote. By pressing the remote button, the buzzer sounds this helps the blind person to locate the smart stick. As proposed, a smart blind stick with remote and video tracking functionalities was designed and verified to be fully functional.