The Navaid –A Navigation System For Visually Challenged Obstacle Detection Using Ultrasonic Sensors

This paper presents an Electronic Travel Aid (ETA) for visually impaired and blind people. This device enables a blind user to quickly and safely walk through obstacle cluttered and unknown environments with a combination of eye glasses and waist belt. The foremost innovation of this device is its ability to actively guide the user around obstacles in pursuit of a given target direction. Using a network of ultrasonic sensors, this is possible. And special feature lets the system automatically determine the direction of travel when traveling alongside walls, sidewalks, etc. It effectively calculates the distance of the detected object from the subject and prepares navigation path accordingly avoiding obstacles. It uses speech feedback to aware the person about the detected obstacle and its distance. Such speech messages are conveyed to the subject using earphone.