Inspiration
We have an employee in our university who works in the university IT systems and we used to watch her trace her route out with the stick everyday. We wanted to develop this device to help her detect obstacle from a further distance so that she can avoid walking into them and backtracking.
What it does
The device has additional sensors in 3 directions so that the user is indicated of any upcoming obstacles so that they can change their course in advance.
How we built it
We used Arduino 101 with sensors on bread board. The sensors will push the data to the master device using RF or Bluetooth and the device would advice accordingly.
Challenges we ran into
Consolidating the sensor data and determining the threshold values for different sensors.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We are proud and happy about the number of steps it would save everyday for the visually impaired. The fact that it can be done in less than $10
What we learned
Limitations of sensors strength.
What's next for Smart Stick
We would want to use better and powerful sensors to consistently identify the obstacles well ahead. Also we would want to have this as a wearable device instead of having them on a stick. The idea is to not have a stick at all.
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