Internet of Things (IoT) Enabled Smart Navigation Aid for Visually Impaired

Blindness is a disorder in which a person's ocular vision is lost. Mobility and self-reliability have been a primary concern for visually disabled and blind people. Internet of Things (IoT) enabled Smart Navigation Aid, a smart Electronic Traveling Aid (ETA), is proposed in this paper. This smart guiding ETA improves the lives of blind people since it is enabled with IoT-based sensing and is designed to help visually disabled/impaired people walk and navigate freely in both close and open areas. The proposed prototype provides highly powerful, accurate, quick responding, lightweight, low power consumption, and cost-effective solution that would enhance the lives of the visually impaired people. Within a 1m radius, ultrasonic sensors were used to locate the barrier and potholes. The location was shared with the cloud using GPS and an ESP8266 Wi-Fi module. The stick was also installed with an emergency button, which will call on the mobile when pressed. The stick can also detect wet surfaces with the help of a water sensor. The entire system was built on the Arduino UNO 3 platform. Thus, the proposed prototype is an excellent example of how IoT enabled sensing could aid in the day-to-day lives of the visually impaired people and allowing them the freedom to navigate independently.