DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A GLASS-MOUNTED ULTRASONIC OBSTACLE DETECTION SYSTEM FOR VISUALLY IMPAIRED INDIVIDUALS

Individuals with visual impairments encounter major challenges in navigation, object recognition, and social interactions. Smart vision glasses (SVG) emerge as an assistive device to provide real-time assistance through real time environmental sensing and feedback. The proposed work explains the design, development, and testing of smart glasses that is intended to assist visually impaired people to navigate safely and independently by real time obstacle detection. This wearable assistive device is assembled using Arduino Nano microcontroller along with three types of sensors and actuators: Grove Ultrasonic Sensor, an active buzzer and a vibration motor in order to provide both sound and haptic feedback. The ultrasonic sensor operates by emitting ultrasonic frequency and measuring backscattered signals from objects in the surrounding environment. The sound and vibration devices send a prompt to the user whenever an is obstacle detected within a predefined range, making the user aware of surroundings, thus avoiding possible collisions. This small-size, lightweight wearable device is powered using a rechargeable power supply supplemented with a boost converter. Experimental testing of the prototype was conducted for obstacle distances ranging from 20 mm to 80 mm to evaluate the system’s performance in terms of accuracy, response time, and reliability. The obtained results demonstrated rapid obstacle detection with 0.33 seconds to 0.53 seconds response time window and instant user alert. Furthermore, the percentage error of the system ranged from 0.7% to 1.4%, while the overall accuracy varied between 98.6% and 99.3%, with the highest accuracy achieved at 30 mm distance of the obstacle from the user. The results suggest that the proposed smart glasses will provide an effective, reliable and affordable aid to blind users that will substantially contribute to improved quality of life.