Published April 8, 2020

Smart Blind Stick using Bolt

Blind stick is an innovative stick designed for visually disabled people for improved navigation.

IntermediateFull instructions provided10 hours1,463

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Bolt IoT Bolt WiFi Module

Arduino UNO

Ultrasonic Sensor - HC-SR04 (Generic)

Buzzer

LED (generic)

Jumper wires (generic)

Software apps and online services

Bolt IoT Bolt Cloud

Arduino IDE

Story

Abstract

Hugh Herr is a famous American rock climber who has shattered the limitations of his disabilities; he is a strong believer that technology could help disabled persons to live a normal life. In one of his TED talk Herr said “Humans are not disabled. A person can never be broken. Our built environment, our technologies, is broken and disabled. We the people need not accept our limitations, but can transfer disability through technological Innovation”. These were not just words but he lived his life to them, today he uses Prosthetic legs and claims to live to normal life. So yes, technology can indeed neutralize human disability; with this in mind let us use the power of Bolt, Arduino and simple sensors to build a Blind man’s stick that could perform more than just a stick for visually impaired persons.

Working Principle

The working principle is very simple. the Arduino continuously check for Serial command received from Bolt. If the command string ON it performs the corresponding functions.

When it receives ON if everything is right it performs analogWrite command. It checks the range of distance from ultrasonic sensor is in limit. If it is less than the limit the led and buzzer will be ON.

By this the person using the Blind stick will be able to know is there any obstacle on his way so that he/she will be alert.

Hardware Setup

1.Buzzer positive terminal(longer pin) to pin 11 of Arduino and negative to ground.

2.LED positive terminal(longer pin) to pin 13 of Arduino and negative to ground.

3.Ultrasonic sensor pins vcc to vcc, gnd to gnd

Echo to pin 10 of Arduino and Trig to pin 9 of Arduino.

4.Tx and Rx pin of Bolt to Tx and Rx pin of Arduino.

Use 5v vcc suply for both Arduino and Bolt

Schematics

Code

Smart Blind stick

#include <BoltDeviceCredentials.h>
#include <BoltIoT-Arduino-Helper.h>
const int trigpin=9;
const int echopin=10;
const int buzzer=11;
const int ledpin=13;
long duration;
int distance;
int safetydistance;

void setup() {
  pinMode(trigpin,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(echopin,INPUT);
  pinMode(buzzer,OUTPUT);
  pinMode(ledpin,OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
  

}

void loop() {
  digitalWrite(trigpin,LOW);
  delayMicroseconds(2);
  digitalWrite(trigpin,HIGH);
  delayMicroseconds(10);
  digitalWrite(trigpin,LOW);
  duration=pulseIn(echopin,HIGH);
  distance=duration*0.034/2;
  safetydistance=distance;
  if(safetydistance<=5){
    digitalWrite(buzzer,HIGH);
    digitalWrite(ledpin,HIGH);
  }
  else{
    digitalWrite(buzzer,LOW);
    digitalWrite(ledpin,LOW);
  }
  Serial.print("Distance:");
  Serial.println("distance");

}

Credits

Guruprasad Hiremath

1 project • 2 followers