J027022 Construction of an Electronic White Cane System for the Blind with Smartphone

Abstract

For visually handicapped people, it is important to recognaize dangerous situations using white cane. However, its detection range is limited by the length of the white cane. Some previous studies try to extend this range by adding some sensors to the white cane, and such cane is called electronic white cane. In the present study, we develop small electronic white cane using smartphone, and we detect dangerous object earlier than usual white cane. In addition to smartphone, we also added an acceleration sensor and an ultrasonic sensor to get information around the cane. The data from the sensors are sent to smartphone via Bluetooth synchronously, and some data processing are performed on the smartphone. By this experiment, we could measure the distance to the wall and we could also detect on which side an obstacle exists.