BLIND AID : TRAVEL AID FOR BLIND

Visually impaired people face many problems in their day to day lives. Among them, outdoor navigation is one of the major concerns. The existing solutions based on Wireless Sensor Networks(WSN) and Global Positioning System (GPS) track ZigBee units or RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) tags fixed on the navigation system. The issues pertaining to these solutions are as follows: (1) It is suitable only when the visually impaired person is commuting in a familiar environment; (2) The device provides only a one way communication; (3) Most of these instruments are heavy and sometimes costly. Preferable solution would be to make a system which is easy to carry and cheap. The objective of this paper is to break down the technological barriers, and to propose a system by developing an Android App which would help a visually impaired person while traveling via the public transport system like Bus. The proposed system uses an inbuilt feature of smart phone such as GPS location tracker to track the location of the user and Text to Speech converter. The system also integrates Google Speech to Text converter for capturing the voice input and converts them to text. This system recommends the requirement of installing a GPS module in buses for real time tracking. With minor modification, this App can also help older people for independent navigation.