Low cost smart walking stick design with smart sensors for the visually impaired

It is assumedthatapproximately 285 millionpeople in theworldarevisuallyimpaired. Of these, 39 millionwererecorded as "blind" and 246 million as "lowvision". Theremay be manyreasonsforvisualimpairment. Geneticpredispositionandmarriagetorelativesarethe main causes of eyedefects in ourcountry. Inaddition, severe visualimpairmentmayoccurduetoreasonssuch as accidents, injuriesandbraindamage. Nowadays, weactivelyusetechnology in everyaspect of ourlives. Various hardware and software areproducedsothatvisuallyimpairedpeople can livetheirlivesmorecomfortably, likenon-disabledindividuals. Thankstothesmartcanedesignedwiththisstudy, it is aimedtoraisethelivingstandards of disabledindividuals. Byintegratingelectronicdevicesintoourdesignedsmartcane, thevisuallyimpairedcanewill be madesmart. Thepurpose of thisstudy is todesignoursmartcaneboth in hardware and software. Three differenthardwareswereused. These; It is GPS module, Arduino Leonardo development board and GSM module. Arduino IDE code platform wasused in the software phase. Incase of anydanger, a warningmessagewill be sent tothe mobile phonefromtheCappadocia GSM modulebyapplyingthe data communicationalgorithm. Afterthewarningsignal is received, theroutines in the mobile phone software will be activated. It has beenobservedthatthesystemworkssuccessfullyanddetectsthelocation of thevisuallyimpairedindividualaccurately. Therearemanystudies in theliteraturedesignedforvisuallyimpairedpeople. Inthesestudies, it wasseenthatthecircuitand software designsdevelopedfordifferentsystemsweresimilar. ThankstotheCappadocia GSM Shieldweused in ourstudy, it is aimedtokeepthecostlowbycombiningmanyfunctions.