RFAIDE — An RFID based navigation and object recognition assistant for visually impaired people

In this paper, we have presented a system utilizing Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for the assistance of blind people. The proposed system incorporates a mobile RFID reader module with an integrated ZigBee transceiver [1] for transmitting the tag's information. Utensils and other objects in the house or building are embedded with passive RFID tags (transponders) along with an audio file, recorded for and unique to each object, residing on the server. This system further takes in the way finding technique by employing an RFID tag grid [4] using an ample separation area. The reader reads the tags and transmits the data wirelessly to the server PC which in turn scans for the particular ID in the database and plays the corresponding audio file. A self designed coordinates system with a server side routing application is used for routing the person to a particular room requested, based on his current tag coordinates. The audio playback is relayed wirelessly using an FM transmitter to either a headset with FM receiver or a Smart Phone's FM radio. The feasibility and reliability of the developed system was tested by deploying the proposed system at Government Institute for Blind, Peshawar, Pakistan [6].