Artificial Intelligence and Sensors Based Assistive System for the Visually Impaired People

The need for developing a low-cost assistive system for the visually impaired and blind people has increased with steady increase in their population worldwide. The stick system presented in the paper uses artificial intelligence along with various sensors in real time to help the visually disabled people to navigate their environment independently. Image recognition, collision detection and obstacle detection are the three tasks performed by the system. The image recognition task was performed using a smartphone application powered by artificial intelligence. The tasks of collision detection and obstacle detection utilized ultrasonic sensors to alert the user of the obstacles appearing in his route. The stick system also managed to demonstrate the important characteristics of affordability, high efficiency, mobility and ease of use.