Inventor

Mobility is an issue for vision impaired people, especially in unfamiliar surroundings. White cane is the common approach in helping the visual impaired person in travelling. However, it only detects leg-level obstacles. In our project, the Smart White Cane is designed to detect both head-level and trunk-level obstacles. It consists of an Arduino microcontroller, two ultrasonic sensors, a motion sensor, a piezoelectric sensor or buzzer, two vibrating motors and a Bluetooth transmitter. Two ultrasonic sensors are used to detect the head-level and trunk-level obstacles. The motion sensor is installed to ensure the user holds the Smart White Cane in the correct way. Meantime, the piezoelectric sensor detects external impact which is translated as a fall of the user. Furthermore, the piezoelectric sensor acts as the buzzer in the system to alert the user on obstacles or incorrect way in holding the cane. Another alert output on the obstacles’ detection is generated by two vibrating motors. A mobile application, which connects the Smart White Cane through Bluetooth, has been created. Users can use the mobile application to control the setting of the Smart White Cane. The Smart White Cane won several competitions, and it has been published in MECON2023.

• Description of Invention

  Assistant Professor Ts. Dr. Sin Yew Keong

• Intellectual Property (IP) Status

  • Copyright Affirmed
  • TRL Status: 6

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