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Blind guiding device (Owlie)

Owlie is a blind guiding device which provides hand free option to a stick and is more user friendly compared to other similar devices.

debbie-leungDebbie Leung
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A guiding stick is the most common assistive device for visually impaired persons. There are some problems with using a guiding stick. A guiding stick detects objects landing on ground level and objects hanging in the air are undetected. Owlie can detect both objects hanging in air and on ground. Also holding a guiding stick means one hand is not free. Daily activities that require both hands and walking are not easy to do. It takes a lot of training to do. Inconvenience makes a guiding stick user give up on doing some regular activities. Losing sight shouldn't mean they should lose freedom of their hand. With Owlie, this hand free option let users wear it on their body in different ways. No training is required to perform daily tasks with Owlie. Other similar devices require users to carry more than one unit and position sensors while Owlie is a button pin in one unit with simple and user friendly design.

The focus on this project is simple and user friendly. 3D design is as important as functionality.

The size of this device is 6.1cm X 6.5cm X 4.4cm. The design of button pin with an Owl is used on this project because users can grab it easily. its design allows users to wear it in different ways.

This device performs obstacle detection with both audio and haptic feedbacks in variable detection range with rotating Sensors in the Owl’s eyes in 90 degrees

The components are Arduino/Attiny84, Ultrasonic sensor HC-SR04, a Piezo buzzer, a vibrational motor, a DC motor, and batteries (GP 476A 6V). However, the size of Arduino is too big for this device. So I’ve used Attiny84 instead because of its smaller size to fit the device. Size of components need to be small enough to fit the device. Choices of batteries are still being investigated.

Schematic.png

Circuit design of Owlie

Portable Network Graphics (PNG) - 79.25 kB - 09/18/2016 at 21:12

Preview

Testing of Owlie.m4v

Owlie beeps from the buzzer and vibrates from the pager motor only once between 150 cm and 100cm from an object to let the user be aware of an object in that distance. As the object gets closer between 100cm and 30 cm, it beeps and vibrates more frequently about 5 times. Then when it gets too close less than 30 cm, it keeps beeping and vibrating until the user moves away from the object.

MPEG-4 Video - 26.44 MB - 09/18/2016 at 19:41

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  • Detection testing of Owlie at different distances.

    Debbie Leung • 09/18/2016 at 20:38 • 0 comments

    This video contains testing of Owlie at different distances. Owlie beeps from the buzzer and vibrates from the pager motor only once between 150 cm and 100cm from an object to let the user be aware of an object in that distance. As the object gets closer between 100cm and 30 cm, it beeps and vibrates more frequently about 5 times. Then when it gets too close less than 30 cm, it keeps beeping and vibrating until the user moves away from the object. Here is the link to the video clip.Testing of Owlie at different distances

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zakqwy wrote 08/25/2016 at 21:42 • point

I dig the owl design! 

  Are you sure? yes | no

Debbie Leung wrote 08/25/2016 at 22:03 • point

Thanks! :)

  Are you sure? yes | no

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