Common Smart Stick for Blind and Elderly People to Detect Environmental Factors and Free Navigation

The ageing population effect is becoming predominant as the world population grows. Ageing leads to problems such as visual impairment, hearing impairment, arthritis, and others. As per the world health organization (WHO) report 2021, more than 25% of the world's population has distance vision impairment, of which 58% of the blind people were in the age group higher than 60 years. The blind and geriatric population require a stick for their free navigation. The existing passive blind sticks have the limitation of non-interacting with the nearby environment, for example, finding the location of the destination and detecting the fire nearby and water on the ground. Therefore, a smart stick is required that can be commonly used by blind and older people. In this paper, we have developed the advanced blind stick by integrating an obstacle detector in front of the user, a fire detector in the nearby environment, a water detector to detect water puddles on the ground, an emergency save our souls (SOS) button, a global positioning system (GPS) module for user location, and Internet of Things (IoT) integration for real-time data transfer to the website. The stick was tested by the ten older persons. The developed advanced stick uses some latest technologies that made the device affordable, durable, and easy to operate. We have also developed a website to be used by the user's caregiver and the hospital. With the help of a smart stick, an increase in travel speed, independence, confidence, safety, and reduction in collisions was found in target users.