Technical Proposal for Smart Cane

Benjamin Nguyen, Jie Yu, Mariam Khan,

Rezwana Kabita, Sanjidah Abdullah

Eng 210.07 Writing for Engineering

Professor Maryam Alikhani

City College of New York

November 21, 2018

Here, you will find a part of my technical proposal.

Executive Summary

The following is a proposal for the Smart Cane, a technical and responsive smart walking cane that allows for the blind to better navigate themselves in public settings such as grocery stores, parks, and other locations that can be unfamiliar. Our goal is to be able to design a technological walking cane for the blind to navigate through unfamiliar areas. The walking cane will have a sensor on the rear end which will respond to touch or once the cane comes into contact with an object. Once the sensor is activated, it will activate the camera attached to the walking cane and the camera will use Image Processing tools to identify the object. After the object is identified, a speaker or bluetooth headset will verbalize what that object is. The project will require a knowledge of both the hardware components of the camera, speaker, bluetooth headset, and how they will correspond to Image Processing software.

 

Introduction

Blindness is the inability to see due to an injury, disease, or a congenital condition. This eye condition affects about 36 million people worldwide, while there are a total of 1.3 billion people who suffer from various forms of visual impairment altogether (World Health Organization, 2018). There are many types of visual impairments such as cataracts and diabetic retinopathy that can be treated through surgery. Although, now, technology plays a crucial role in the development of products to help treat blindness and even restore vision. For instance, Second Sight created a bionic eye brain implant called Orion to restore some vision to people who are blind due to causes other than preventable or treatable conditions. This solution costs about $150,000 and is available in 15 centers in the United States (Mullin, 2017). However, for those who prefer an alternative to a biomedically engineered product, an external piece of technology such as WeWALK’s Smart Cane is available. The Smart Cane is a technological cane that alerts visually-impaired people if there are any obstacles in front of them through voice alert and vibration, which could allow them to walk with less accident (Wahab-Mutalib et al., 2011). Thus, through the advancement of modern technology, we are able to use viable solutions to help treat and even cure blindness.

 

Statement of the Problem

The problem we are addressing is the need for more accurate sensing for the blind to live a more comfortable and inclusive life. Blind people have been forced to use basic canes that have a purpose of detecting a physical object near them by having the cane come into physical contact with the nearby object. However, the blind have to rely on their sense of touch to figure out what that object actually is. With time, many have figured out how to live with their canes and sense of touch, but what about the people that have yet to master the skill of understanding the physical world simply by touch? There have been attempts to solve this issue using products such as the bionic eye and current existing but lacking smart canes. However, these solutions are drastically expensive and their accessibility is limited. To note, the current existing smart cane, for example, does not alert users of specificity of the object and the bionic eye is not universal for all types of blindness. The only other alternative is learning the aforementioned skill. Learning this skill takes years of experience and even then, performing basic daily tasks such as grocery shopping can be difficult without the aid of another person. In order to achieve a better way of navigating life with blindness, an alternative solution is needed.

 

Objectives

Our objective is to enhance the lives of those affected by blindness by providing a smart cane that helps detect objects using a camera, eliminating the need of another person. With visual detection, the specificity of a product will no longer be a mystery for the blind. This will help visually-impaired people with basic daily tasks such as shopping and navigating through unfamiliar areas. Additionally, we want to make this solution accessible to all, regardless of the form of visual impairment they have and their financial status. Rather than creating a limitedly accessible product, we would research affordable alternatives for the equipment while still retaining the high level of quality. Our research would be implemented into our product so that it will improve the quality of life for the blind.

 

Plan of Action

The main course of action we want to take is in doing research on features that are yet to exist so that we can incorporate it to our version of the smart cane. We plan on building the software component of the smart cane first, and then moving onto building the hardware component. Once both components are developed, we will integrate them and run multiple tests to determine the most efficient version of the smart cane through trial and error.

For the software component of our smart cane, we want to achieve our objective by researching object detection using cameras and develop effective image processing programs to build the most efficient form of our smart cane.  In order for our research to be used correctly, we plan on integrating it with the sensors we will be using. The image detection software will take into account the colors, edges, logos, and many other visually distinct features on objects and send this information to a computer that will process it. The “first step in image classification is to simplify the image by extracting important information and leaving out the rest” (Maruti Tech Labs, 2017). After that, the software must begin “segmenting the image and analyzing each and every segment for pixel differences” (TestingWhiz, 2014). While the information is sifted through by the image processing software, it will compare the information to online image databases with an algorithm that helps find visual similarities. After comparing the information given with the databases, the computer will choose the keyword that best matches which will ultimately be sent back to the cane. This keyword is then verbalized to the user of cane through the attached speakers.  

In regards to the hardware component, it must coalesce well with the Image Processing programming software and be able to relay information to each respective component so that the cane can come together as a cohesive unit. The sensor must be able to register touch and once it activates, it must be relay that information to the camera to activate. Once the camera activates, it is imperative that the Image Processing software activates and register the image that is taken by the camera to process it via an online database. In order to power the entire unit, there must also be a convenient power supply that is light, efficient, and portable as to not hinder the walking experience of the user. The power supply must be able to power all of the electronic components swiftly and effectively. And lastly, the cane itself will also have to be extremely durable and retractable in order to suit the daily needs and convenience of a visually impaired person. To do this, the cane will be composed of a light and durable carbon fiber, thus adding to the integrity, and overall composition of the cane.