ANAVI: Advanced Navigation Assistance for Visually Impaired

The advancement in technology over the decades has provided for exceptional solutions and aid for the visually impaired. However, they are standalone solutions that target specific problems encountered by visually impaired individuals. This paper addresses some of the most common problems faced by the visually impaired and to provide an innovative and inexpensive solution that collectively addresses the problems. The solution proposed in this paper makes use of RF communication, AWS (Amazon Web Services) IoT (Internet of Things) core, and Computer Vision to aid visually impaired people to detect an object and use public transportation independently. Computer vision labels identify the obstacles or objects in front to aid the visually impaired individual to navigate through rough terrain. The problem faced by the visually impaired is access to public transport, which a majority of them use to commute daily as it is the only viable mobility option in our country. The visually impaired are forced to always rely on other individuals to help them travel making them feel dependent. The other problem is when navigating the streets or in their home, it is hard to recognize the type of object and the distance at which it is in front of them. Hence, there is a system that is required to allow them to travel independently and help them feel empowered. The handheld unit will be connected to the bus stop modules using RF module and Py-camera. The bus stop modules will have an ESP 8266 which provides the Internet connection. The modules and the buses will be connected using the services of AWS IoT core. Even though there are many ways for the visually impaired individuals to navigate the streets, as the environment and the objects around us change rapidly, it is close to impossible for them to spot using conventional methods and that is where this system comes in handy. For one such instance, an open drainage, which is 1 by 1 foot wide, cannot be detected using the tap and go method or sound sensing methods while the system has a pretrained dataset which can send a voice alert saying there is an open drain at 20 m in front and a vibration-based alert stimulation is given at the stick handle to help circumnavigate the open drain.