An intelligent orientation aid for the visually handicapped

Abstract

In today’s market, there has been a plethora of visually impaired aid and navigation systems available, these devices allow the visually-handicapped to recognize his/her surroundings better. Some of the devices include: guide dogs, sighted guides or electronic walking canes to help them detect obstacles in their footpath. However the problems for most of the devices are that: the high pricings of the devices and that they only detect obstacles when the obstacles are very near to the user. Furthermore in Singapore’s context, the society has not been receptive towards guide dogs which limit guide dog owners from travelling out.

I have proposed a prototype that is designed for the visually-handicapped in terms of obstacle detection and avoidance. In addition, the prototype will be paired with a mobile application, VisualAid to provide a better navigation experience for the user.

The project taps on usages of a mobile application to operate. It is designed to be a user friendly application that is as inexpensive as possible so as to minimise the costs to the owner.

At the end of the project, I have developed a mobile application that integrates the prototype and through the mobile application, it can warn and inform the users about objects and the proximities ahead of time via audio signals using the technologies of screen reader.