An Ultrasonic Navigation System for Blind People

The aim of this paper is to investigate the development of a navigation aid for blind and visually impaired people. It is based on a microcontroller with synthetic speech output. This aid is portable and gives information to the user about urban walking routes to point out what decisions to make. On the other hand, and in order to reduce navigation difficulties of the blind, an obstacle detection system using ultrasounds and vibrators is added to this device. The proposed system detects the nearest obstacle via stereoscopic sonar system and sends back vibro-tactile feedback to inform the blind about its localization.