A low-cost mobility monitoring system for visually impaired users

摘要

This paper presents an obstacle detection system able to permit the visually impaired user to get information on the surrounding complex environment. The system also allows setting an active mobile connection with the distant assistant guide. A low-cost ultrasound microcontroller based system, capable of detecting grounded or raised obstacles up to a few meters in front of the subject, is proposed. The detecting principle is based on the measurement of the time of flight of the transmitted pulse from the proposed system and reflected by the obstacle. The system reliability can be further improved by adding optic or microwave sensors to the detection system. A global positioning system and a mobile network module are used to set the mobile data communication. In order to explore the system's performance, by analyzing the detection capability and the positioning data transmission link, different indoor and outdoor obstacle detection scenarios were tested. The proposed low-cost detection system would help blind people live more independently their everyday life.