INTELLIGENT BLIND STICK

International Research Journal of Computer Science (IRJCS) ISSN: 2393-9842
Issue 03, Volume 6 (March 2019) www.irjcs.com
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© 2014-19, IRJCS- All Rights Reserved Page-47
INTELLIGENT BLIND STICK
M.A. Berlin,
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
R.M.D Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, INDIA
Mab.cse@rmd.ac.in;
Braghadeesh Prasath S,
brahadeeshprasath@gmail.com;
Adharsh Sandeep R, Deva Sastha A
Manuscript History
Number: IRJCS/RS/Vol.06/Issue03/MRCS10086
Received: 05, March 2019
Final Correction: 17, March 2019
Final Accepted: 24, March 2019
Published: March 2019
Citation: Berlin, Braghadeesh, Sandeep & Sastha (2019). INTELLIGENT BLIND STICK. IRJCS:: International
Research Journal of Computer Science, Volume VI, 47-54. doi://10.26562/IRJCS.2019.MRCS10086
doi://10.26562/IRJCS.2019.MRCS10086
Editor: Dr.A.Arul L.S, Chief Editor, IRJCS, AM Publications, India
Copyright: ©2019 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License, Which Permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author
and source are credited
Abstract - The aim of this paper is to help the blind people to identify and catch the public transport vehicles with
the help of Light Fidelity technology. It is a Navigation aid. When the bus arrives at the bus stand, transmitter in the
bus transmits the light signals and receiver in the stick, receives the light signals and a sound signal is generated
through the speaker present in the stick. The sound message contains the bus number and the destination of the
bus. In addition to this, if the person is absconded or lost, details of the location will be sent to his/her family
members by pressing a button. This is made possible with the help of Global System for Mobile (GSM). Finally,
presence of water can be detected along the blind person’s path, with the help of water sensors.
Index Terms – Bus detection; blind stick bus detection using LIFI; blind stick GSM detection;
I. INTRODUCTION
Vision plays a major role in gaining knowledge about the surrounding world. Visual acuity and their performance
are broadly categorized into four levels. They are normal vision, moderate, severe, and blindness level [1].According
to the World Health Organization (WHO) report in the world, there are about 285 million people [3] with visual
impairment problems and, to the latest survey in India, around 1.5 million people are visually challenged and facing
several problems in performing their day to day activities. This count is around 170 million worldwide [2]. The
remaining persons suffer from low vision impairment problem. This count is expected to double in the upcoming
decades. Some lose their vision due to accidents and some of them due to genetic blindness which traverse to them
by means of genes, which is not in their hands. Some persons get back their vision by undergoing surgeries and
some by performing laser operations. Some of them can’t get it back.
Generally, we board the bus by viewing the display in the bus which contains the bus number and the destination of
the bus reaching station. Visually impaired person needs help of the other person in the bus stop or their close ones
always with them. Majority of the visually challenged persons fall under middle class economy and some of them in
other distinct economies. They cannot afford private cars or other vehicles to reach their destination. Hence, they
prefer public transports more often.

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The smart wearable systems are gaining more and more attentions in the market, recent years. Several researches
introduced portable and embedded electronic devices [3] such as smart glasses, electronic shoes and smart belts
and smart glove to help the visually challenged person. There are some of good-hearted persons in earth who help
blind people in boarding the bus and helping them in other activities but we can’t expect the same from them and
from all in every situation. Hence to avoid this problem and to help the visually impaired person, blind stick which
can sense the bus number and the destination and this information can be provided to the victim through voice
notification using Light Fidelity (LIFI) technology [4]. This setup is mostly preferred and implemented in white cane
stick. This can also be implemented in smart glasses, belt and shoes but suffers from following problems.
1) When a person wearing smart shoes that has LIFI technology integrated in it, the receiver part cannot receive the
light signals if he/she stands in any other direction opposite to the transmitter of the bus.
2) In case if it is attached in belt, his/her dress can be an obstacle for the light rays.
3) As this setup in the stick may be burden/heaviness for the blind people to carry for a long time, they cannot
prefer the stick.
In certain cases, normal person who has a good vision also may travel through a wrong route or catch a wrong bus
due to unaware of its current designated destination. If the visually challenged person may not able to reach their
home, then with the help of the GPS tracking system which has GSM module built inside the cane his/her location
will be sent to dear ones by pressing a button. The geographic location of the person holding the stick is sent to them
via message. In rainy seasons, the pathway may be wet and the blind person’s legs get slipped with theirun knowing
status of the surface condition. People wearing slippers and shoes, have normal grip and they may get slipped so
grip should be more for the slippery surface. Every normal person also should be more conscious in those areas.
When the same pathway is crossed by a blind person, it would be more challenging one and too risky for them.
Presence of water in the pathway can be detected with the help of sensors in the white cane which sends a sound
signal or beep signal which alerts the blind person about the presence of water. In our proposed system, we have
developed an approach that supports for the visually challenged people to detect the arrival of bus in the bus station
using LIFI technology, location detection and also to detect wet surfaces along their path during rainy season.
The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section II deals about related work; section III explains the working
principle of the proposed system. Section IV describes the results and discussion. Section V deals about conclusion
and future work.
II. RELATED WORK
Several approaches have been proposed by young researchers for guiding blind people. In this section, we are
discussing the most related approaches that are suitable for our proposed system. Jerry T et al have proposed a bus
accessible system for visually challenged people [5]. In this proposed scheme, they had used a Bluetooth device
which was fixed in the bus and also in every bus station. These devices were connected through processing systems.
They have also used the text to speech converter and made the bus information to be announced at the station
through speaker. However, this Bluetooth technology had few drawbacks such as limited number of connections
between devices and the range of Bluetooth connectivity. Noor et al have introduced a Radio Frequency Identifier
(RFID) based models that is used to navigate the visually impaired person [6]. A RFID tag was attached to each and
every bus which has the information about the bus details. The details like bus number and the upcoming
destination were included. Each blind person has to carry a portable device which contains RFID reader,
headset/speaker and control system. The approaching buses were detected by the RFID reader to get the bus
information from the tags that were present in the bus. The information fetched was converted into audio format by
control systems and delivered to the blind persons. The disadvantage in this system was that the bus driver had no
information whether blind person was standing in the stop or not.
An assistive system was proposed by Quoc T, Kim M, Lee H and Eomusing Wireless Sensor Network (WSN)for blind
people[7]. This proposed methodology has two phases. First phase is identification of blind people in the bus
station. Second phase is the interaction between the bus and the bus station. The station is divided into two areas
one for normal people and the other for the visually impaired person. The door in the blind people area has two
sticks in order to link a switch to show if blind person is present or not. The system was designed in such a way that
if it detects a blind people in station, the information is passed to every bus that is within the Radio frequency range.
Once the bus receives the information, the bus number will be announced using microphone. The presence of blind
people in the station is identified by red and blue light system. Red indicates presence of blind people and blue
indicates absence of blind people in the bus station. One disadvantage was that the system was not sure whether a
blind or normal person is present in the station. With the help of this proposed system, only the entry of the blind
person can be recorded by the sensor which is waste use of the system if he/she leaves the station.Also,the authors
pointed out that this scheme can provide only the bus number information and not the upcoming destination to the
blind person.

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Jalila Al Kalbani, Rajaa Bait Suwailam, Arwa AlYafai, Dawood Al Abri and Medhat Awadalla[8] have implemented a
bus detection system for the blind people using RFID. This system has two detection subsystems, one system is
embedded in the bus and the other one is placed in the bus stand that includes a database system and a website. In
the bus detection sub system, the nearby bus stop or bus stand will be easily detected and the name of the bus
station can beannounced through a voice message inside the bus. It also identifies number of blind persons in the
station and sends the information of this count to the bus driver. In the bus station sub system, the upcoming buses
will be detected and then announced in the station to alert the visually impaired person.
Hangrong Pan, Chucai Yi, Yingli Tian proposed a methodology to detect and recognize bus [9]. At initial stage the
physical structure of the bus is detected and once the bus is detected then the bus number recognition process is
carried out. The recognized bus number is then informed to the visually impaired person through mini speaker. A
computer vision-based system was designed to detect and know the bus information from the captured images by a
camera. Histogram of the oriented gradient (HOG) descriptor is applied to extract the image-based features of bus
facade. The cascaded SVM model is used to detect the existence of bus structure in sliding windows. For the bus
number recognition, text detection algorithm is implemented. It recognizes the text code from detected text region
for the secondary speech process. In the voice message the bus number is played as per the audio and sound wave
policies.
Chun Ming Tsai and Zong Mu Yeh proposed a system [10] which detects the text in the bus when the bus arrives the
bus station. It includes the following sub systems: moving bus detection, bus text detection and bus panel detection
sub systems. In this methodology, text in the bus panel is detected when the bus is in the moving state. Using
Modified Adaptive Frame Differencing (MAFD) the moving bus is captured by the glasses video camera. The
captured image was then converted into binary image through threshold value and Connected Component Labelling
(CCL) was used in the binary image. Then Bounding Boxes method was applied to detect the bus panel. Camera
should not capture each and every moving object hence this Bounding Boxes technique was applied to detect only
the moving bus. Once the bus panel was identified then text detection process is carried out. The authors also used a
Scan Line Distribution technique for carrying out the text to speaker process.
III. PROPOSED SYSTEM
The Intelligent Blind Stick has been proposed for detecting buses in bus station, location detection and also for
identifying wet surfaces. This proposed system helped the visually challenged people for managing themselves on
their own and thereby improving their confident level. Our proposed system comprises three sub parts:
A. Bus detection approach
B. Location detection
C. Water detection
These three subparts are explained in the following sections.
A. Bus Detection approach
In our proposed system, LIFI technology plays a major role. It is assumed that every bus is equipped with LIFI
transmitter and the intelligent blind stick is equipped with LIFI receiver. The transmitter which is fixed in the bus
has a transmitting device and a processing system. Keypad is pressed to generate the transmission of signals
through light and the light will be continuously emitted from the transmitter. Blind person has to be available in the
bus stand with the proposed stick. Stick has LIFI receiver and is connected with the Arduino microcontroller for
programming purposes. Arduino board plays a major role exactly as the Central Processing Unit (CPU) of the
computer. When the light signal from the transmitter started transmitting and reaches the receiver, the receiver is
designed in such a way that light rays falls on the photo emitting diodes on the surface of the stick. Figure 1 shows
the working function of the transmitter.
Figure1. Function of Transmitter

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Figure 1 shows the function of transmitter in which the Arduino processes the corresponding signal pressed in the
keypad and light signals are processed and transmitted accordingly. Microcontroller is a single integrated circuit
that is used to perform the aforementioned task. It contains memory, programmable input/output peripherals as a
processor. These photo emitting diodes produces the current signal depending upon the light signal received, by
which the process is carried out. This receiver then sends the suitable electronic signals to the DF mini speaker. DF
mini Speaker is a synthetic speech output device. DF mini speaker generates the sound that can be heard by the
blind person. DF mini speaker is connected with the Arduino board and the process would be carried out in the
order in an easier way. Depending on the choice of the blind person, the voice can be played in the mini speaker or
the headphone can be fixed in the headphone jack of the stick, which may not disturb other persons in the
surrounding. In addition to this, ultra-sonic sensors are placed in and around the stick to detect the bus and the
distance between the stick and the bus. Ultra-sonic signals are also sent to the receiver so that the voice is
generated. Suitable programming sections are done in the Arduino board connected with the receiver. In the
transmitter side, programming sections are enclosed in the format with the bus details filled in it. Once the light rays
from the bus interacts with the stick, the receiving process from the speaker would get started so that the blind
person can able to listen to the bus details in an accurate manner. Figure 2 shows the working function of the
receiver which is placed at the intelligent stick.
Figure2. Function of Receiver
Figure 2 shows the function of receiver which receives light signals, processed by the micro controller and the
output is delivered by the DF Mini player
B. Location detection
In case of any emergency situations like the person has lost the route or the person didn’t turn up on time to home,
our proposed system will help them to communicate with their family. A GSM module is attached with the stick
which is capable of providing geographical location of the current location. If the person presses a button which is
designed in the stick, the current location of the stick is sent to the dear ones. The GSM system is embedded through
the programming section. The GSM module is connected to the Arduino where the LIFI receiver is connected.
Figure 3. GSM Module
Figure 3 shows the GSM module which is in the intelligent stick. It performs the action of sending the location of the
person to the dear ones.

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C. Water Detection
The proposed system also supports for the visually challenged person to sense the water/wet surface in his path
way. This system helps the person to take an alternate way. A resistor connected with the sensor is linked to the
Arduino. Whenever the resistance level matches, the sound would be generated. It has binary level signals such as
0’s and 1’s. When there is a presence of water signal, 1 is sent to the Arduinoand makes the beep sound or alerts the
blind person. When there is an absence of water, the binary signal 0 is sent to the Arduino and system doesn’t alert
the blind person. This sound intimation is generated using the DF MINI speaker which is attached with the Arduino
board. With the help of this sound, blind person can be warned about the water/wet surface.
Figure 4. LIFI Transmitter - Block Diagram
Figure 4 shows the block diagram of LIFI transmitter which is fixed in every bus. The detailed description of LIFI
transmitter is discussed in the next section.
Figure 5. LIFI Receiver - Block Diagram
Figure 5 shows the LIFI receiver which is embedded in the intelligent stick. The detailed description of LIFI receiver
is discussed in the next section.
IV. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The developed prototype stick can be more helpful to the visually impaired person in detecting the bus route and
bus number and in detecting presence of water and locating them. LIFI transmitter part has components such as
Arduino, LIFI components, step-down transformer, button type structure, a LED screen and a LED bulb. Power
Supply is given to the power board which is 230 volts(V). When the power supply is turned on, 230V enters in to the
step-down transformer. Step-down transformer performs operation which converts 230V into 12V or 1ampere and
sends to the rest of the components. The button structure has 5 buttons in which button has signal 1 and button 2
has signal 2 in it. When the button 1 is pressed by the bus driver for sending bus route number and destination
place, signal 1 is activated and sent to the LIFI transmitter part. This process first converts the digital signal into
binary signal and it is transmitted through the LED bulb. This design is shown in Figure 6.
LIFI receiver part has to be attached in the intelligent blind stick. This stick contains few components such as power
supply from the 12V battery, LIFI receiver part, Ultra-sonic sensors, Water sensor, GSM module with a button
embedded, an Arduino board, a memory card holder and a LED screen. When the light is transmitted from the
transmitter side, it is allowed to fall in the LIFI receiver board. The transmitter must be placed in the range of 25
centimeters from the receiver part.

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Figure 6: Design of LIFI transmitter
When the LIFI receiver side receives the binary signal 1 from the transmitter side, it is processed in the Arduino
board which converts the binary signal to digital signal and sends to the memory card holder. Memory card holder
has voice data which specifies the bus route, number and destination place. When the signal 1 is received and
processed in the Arduino board the file number 1 is played in the DF mini speaker. The well designed Intelligent
Blind stick is shown in Figure 7 and is described below.
Figure7:Design of Intelligent Blind Stick
Three Ultra-sonic sensors are fixed at bottom of the stick and is projected in Figure 8. One at the left side and others
at the right side and front side of the stick.
Figure 8. Ultra-sonic Sensors
Ultra-sonic sensors emit ultra-sonic signals continuously, when object is appeared in front or right or left side, the
ultra-sonic signals are reflected back to the sensor. Once the signal is reflected back, it sends suitable signal,such as
1 or 2 or 3 to detect the respective ultrasonic sensor. It would be sent to the Arduino board and to the memory card.
Depending upon the signal, the voice messages such as “Object is at front/back or at aside” is played through DF
mini speaker and the blind man can able to listen to the voice message, this in turn make the blind man to be aware
of the obstacles. For our reference in this prototype LED screen also displays the same.

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In this design, the water sensor is attached at the bottom of the blind stick and is placed below Ultra-sonic sensors
as shown in Figure 7. When water or any liquid hits the surface of the water sensor which is at the bottom of the
stick, the voice message is played “Water is detected front”. This voice message is also stored in the memory card
holder.
Figure9. Water Sensor
The GSM module is attached in the stick, in which a SIM card is inserted, which supports only 2G network. Once the
SIM is inserted into it, for our testing purpose SIM number was dialled from the mobile phone. When ring tone goes,
it is understood that the SIM is in active state. If not, adjust the SIM in the SIM slot. A button is fixed in the stick
which is connected with the GSM module. In this proposed system, a button is fixed in the stick and in case, the blind
person is lost his current route then he has to press a button by feeling the stick. When the button is pressed, a
message is sent to a mobile number with the location of their position by normal message. The number to which the
message is to be sent is entered in the programming part in the GSM section.
Figure 10. GSM module
V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
This proposed system introduced the bus detection technology using LIFI and helps in locating the geographical
location and identifying the wet surface for visually impaired person. This approach is easy to use and handy for the
blind person to carry. In future, the methodology can be modified by adding additional feature such as detecting and
monitoring the health of the blind person. Presence of moisture content in air and prediction of weather by the
sensor can be done. By using Raspberry Pi, the clock time which is available in text format can be converted into
voice output so that the blind people can able to know the clock time.
VI. REFERENCES
1. Mohamed Lamine, Farid Melagani, YakoubBazi, and NaifAlajlan, “A Compressive Sensing Approach to Describe
Indoor Scenes for Blind People” IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology, vol. 25, Issue
7, 2015.
2. Sreenuponnada, Srinivas Yarramalle and Madhusudhana Rao T.V, “A Hybrid Approach for Identification of
Manhole and staircase to assist Visually challenged”, IEEE Access, Vol. 6, 2018
3. Gaosheng Li, Zhihao Tian, Gui Gao, Liang Zhang, Meng Fu, and Yuwei Chen, “A Shoelace Antenna for the
Application of Collison Avoidance for the Blind Person”, IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation, Vol.
65 , Issue, 2017.

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4. Harald Haas, Liang Yin, Yunlu Wang, and Cheng Chen, “What is LiFi”, Journal of Lightwave Technology, Vol.
34 , Issue: 6 , March15, 2016.
5. Jerry T, Goh H, Tan K,“Accessible Bus System: A Bluetooth Application,” Assistive Technology for Visually
Impaired and Blind People, SpringerLink, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-867-8_11, pp. 363-384,
2008.
6. Noor, M.Z.H, Shah A, IsmailI,SaaidM.F, “Bus detection device for the blind using RFID application,” 5th
International Colloquium on Signal Processing & Its Applications, pp. 247 – 249.2009.
7. Quoc T, Kim M, Lee H, and Eomk, “Wireless Sensor Network apply for the Blind U-bus System,” International
Journal of u- and e- Service, Science and Technology Vol. 3, No. 3, September, 2010.
8. Jailila Al Kalbani, Rajaa Bait Suwailam, Aewa Al Yafiq, Dawood Al Arbi and Medhat Awadalla, “Bus detection
System for Blind People using RFID”, IEEE 8th GCC Conference & Exhibition, Muscat, Feb 2015.
9. Hangrong Pan, Chucai Yi, Yingli Tian, “A Primary Travelling Assistant Systemof Bus Detction and Recognition
for Visually Impaired Person”,IEEE International Conference on Multimedia and Expo Workshops (ICMEW),
2013, USA.
10. Chun Ming Tsai, Zong Mu Yeh., “Text Detection in bus panel for visually impaired people seeing bus route
number” International Conference in Machine Learning and cybernetics, July 2013.

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