Visual Impairment: An Introduction To The Blindness

CHAPTER 1 : INTRODUCTION

1.1 INTRODUCTION

To be blind does not mean to be in darkness, Explore the world.

Our project obstacle detection is a tribute to all blind people and it spreads the message written above as to help the blind people in every possible way so that they feel the same confidence, ease and comfort in exploring the whole world as a sighted people.

Visual impairment or blindness is a condition which affects most of the people in the world. This condition harms the sense of vision. Worldwide there are 285 million people who have some level of visual impairment in which 37 million are blind and more than 160 million people are visually impaired. Hence, the need for this type of navigating devices was and will be continuous.

We are able to see the nature’s beauty, things, and objects with the help of our eyes. But there are some people who can’t able to see these things. They face many challenges in their daily life in doing various tasks. The difficulty becomes more when they move to the unknown places and because of these problems only they are not able to work in the shops or in households properly. These people face difficulties when they move to an unfamiliar location. Moreover, sometimes they are not able to cope up with their surrounding environment. Hence there is a need of such a project to minimize the problems of visually impaired people so as to make them travel independently and help them to detect obstacles around them to avoid any accidents Approximately it is studied that about 10 to 11 million blind people are visually impaired in North America, and this group of population is increasing at an alarming rate. Many of this group of population has problems in knowing where they are or where they are going or where they have to go or is there any obstacle around them so an obstacle detection system is much needed for them. Obstacle detection involves an alert system which has buzzer which helps them if any obstacle is present around him in any direction or in any stairs is present. And it also has a switch attached with him pressing which a “HELP” message is sent to the authorized mobile number in case of

The device provides an alert system with the help of buzzer to detect obstacles based on ultrasonic sensors. An emergency button is also added to the system which sends a “HELP” message to the authorized person. A voice playback system is also installed to the system which provides the route of the destination to the blind people. The whole device is designed to be small and is comfortable to use. [1]

1.1.4 Scope of the project:

The scope of this project is to design a device for the visually impaired people which help them to travel independently, cost effective also and it must be comfortable to use. This project assists the blind and visually impaired about the obstacles present around them with the help of buzzer present in the ultrasonic belt. This project is a GSM based hence it takes the advantages of GSM network such as the cost-effectiveness and its popularity. Additionally, a voice playback system is also used as to help them in assisting the routes of the places where they want to visit regularly as a navigating device Also,we have used a GSM module which sends an alert message to the authorized person if the blind person faces any challenges.