Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering

Synopsis on

PASSENGER BUS ALERT SYSTEM FOR EASY NAVIGATION OF BLIND

Student Name USN

JAYASHREE N 4AD13EC031
KAVYA K G 4AD13EC034
KEERTHI R 4AD13EC035
4AD13EC048
NAMRATHA N

Group Guide

G22 Smt.A C Pavithra

Asst.Professor
 Passenger Bus Alert System for Easy Navigation of
Blind

Abstract

Talking signs, guide cane, echolocations are all useful in navigating the visually challenged
people to reach their destination, but the main objective is not reached that it fails to join
them with traffic. In this project we propose a bus system using wireless sensor networks
(WSNs).The blind people in the bus station is provided with a ZigBee unit which is
recognized by the ZigBee in the bus and the indication is made in the bus that the blind
people is present in the station. So the bus stops at the particular station. The desired bus that
the blind want to take is notified to him with the help of speech recognition system HM2007.
The blind gives the input about the place he has to reach using microphones and the voice
recognition system recognizes it .The input is then analyzed by the microcontroller which
generates the bus numbers corresponding to the location provided by the blind. These bus
numbers are converted into audio output using the voice synthesizer APR 9600. The ZigBee
transceiver in the bus sends the bus number to the transceiver with the blind and the bus
number is announced to the blind through the headphones. The blind takes the right bus
parked in front of him and when the destination is reached it is announced by means of the
GPS-634R which is connected with the controller and voice synthesizer which produces the
audio output. This project is also aimed at helping the elder people for independent
navigation.

Literature Survey

[1] Hyn Kwan Lee , Ki Hwan Eom , Min Chul Kim and Trung Pham Quoc, (2010), 'Wireless
Sensor Network Apply for the Blind U-bus System', International Journal of u- and eservice,
Science and Technology,VoI.3,No.3,pp.l3-24.

Wireless sensor network (WSNs) consists of sensors that continuously monitors the
environmental conditions and send their data to the main network .

[2] Jain.P.C , Vijaygopalan.K.P. (2010), 'RFID and Wireless Sensor Networks', Proceedings
of ASCNT, CDAC, Noida, India, pp. 1 - 11.

These nodes have processing and computational capability and generally consist of an
RF transceiver, memory, on board sensors/actuators and a power source.

[3] Rishabh Gulati (2011), 'GPS Based Voice Alert System for the Blind', International
Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, Volume 2, Issue 1, pp 1-5.

The system designed consists of a GPS receiver and a voice circuit which is interfaced
to the microcontroller.

[4] Bolivar Torres, Qing Pang, (2010), 'Integration of an RFID reader to a Wireless sensor
network and its use to Identify an individual carrying RFID tag', International Journal of ad

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 Passenger Bus Alert System for Easy Navigation of
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hoc. sensor & ubiquitous computing ,voU, no.4,pp.1-15.

ZigBee is present with the blind people and in the bus which is the used instead of
RFID .

[5] Brendan D Perry, Sean Morris and Stephanie Carcieri, (2009), 'RFID Technology to Aid
in Navigation and Organization for the Blind and Partially Sighted', pp. 1-52.

The advantage over of ZigBee over RFID is that it is less cost than RFID tag and
RFID reader.

Problem Statement

Out the 6.7 billion people that populate the world, 161 million are visually impaired. Each
visually impaired individual faces different challenges based on their specific level of vision.
The issues of navigation for the blind are very complex and troublesome especially when
they walked down in street and also navigate to distant places by public transport system.
For a visually impaired person, doing things such as reading traffic signals and street signs
can be extremely challenging, if not it is impossible to do.
In order to overcome these challenges, a visually impaired person might use walking cane,
guide dog, and sighted guide.
These alternatives also called as assistive devices can be helpful to the blind but not so
effective.
To overcome the drawbacks of currently available assistive devices, we propose a Wireles
sensor network system with ZigBee for blind identification by the bus and embedded system
for providing the bus number and GPS for destination indication.

Methodology

Bus unit consists of a ZigBee transceiver with a microcontroller which helps to find the
availability of blind in the bus station and displays it. The blind unit is a mobile unit carried
by the blind people which consists of ZigBee unit for identifying the corresponding bus
parked in front of them, Speech recognition system for identifying the location provided as
voice input by the user and the microcontroller for analyzing the input and providing the
corresponding bus number of the location specified by the blind as audio output through
voice synthesizer. Input is given through microphone and output is heard by the blind through
the headset.

A. Voice Recognition Unit

Speech recognition system is used to help the blind to know the particular buses for a given
location. When the blind speaks through the microphone, the speech recognition system
analyze the input which is then processed by the microcontroller, and then produces the
required output in the audio format which is heard by the user through the headphones. The

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speech recognition system here we use is HM2007.It is a single chip voice recognition LSI
circuit with on the chip voice analysis, recognition process and system control functions. It
may consist of microphone, keyboard, RAM and some other components.
There are two modes of operation. During the power on the chip will start its initialization
process. If the wait pin is Low the chip will do the memory check and if the pin is H then the
chip skips the memory check. After the initialization recognition is done. Ready pin is set low
to allow the voice to be recognized. Once the voice input is detected the ready pin is set high
and recognition begins. We should train the word pattern before the beginning of the
recognition process. After the process is completed the result will appear on the D-bus with
the activation of DEN pin.

B. Voice Synthesizer System

APR9600 device offers true single-chip voice recording, non-volatile storage and playback
capability for 40 to 60 seconds. The voice synthesizer is used to generate speech signal output
of the bus number and the current destination of the blind people. The voice synthesizer is
connected to the microcontroller. Microcontroller accepts input from voice recognition
system and GPS. The device supports both random and sequential access of multiple
messages. Each memory cell can store 256 voltage levels. This technology enables the
APR9600 device to reproduce voice signals in their natural form. It eliminates the need for
encoding and compression, which often introduce distortion. Storage is accomplished through
a combination of the Sample and Hold circuit and the AnalogWritelRead circuit. These
circuits are clocked by either the Internal Oscillator or an external clock source. When
playback is desired the previously stored recording is retrieved from memory, low pass
filtered and amplified. The signal can be heard by connecting a speaker to the SP+ and SP-
pins.
The bus number and the destination which is recorded are played back in this mode. On
power up, the device is ready to record or play back, in any of the enabled message segments.
To record, ICE must be set low to enable the device and IRE must be set low to enable
recording. We recording by applying a low level on the message trigger pin that represents
the message segment we intend to use. To playback, I CE must be set low to enable the
device and IRE must be set high to disable recording & enable playback. Playback will
continue until the end of the message is reached. If a high to low edge occurs on the message
trigger pin during playback, playback of the current message stops immediately. When this
pin is high the device is ready to accept and execute commands from the host. The APR 9600
has a total of eighty memory segments. The IM7 _END pin is used as an indicator that the
device has stopped its current record or playback operation. During recording a low going
pulse indicates that all memory has been used. During playback a low pulse indicates that the
last message has played.

C. ARM7 Microcontroller

ARM7 processor is a 32-bit RISC CPU designed by ARM. ARM is a family of

Von-Neumonn architecture microcontroller originally developed by ACORN computers in
1980s. The name ARM initially reffered to ADVANCED RISC Machines. In our system
two controllers are used. One in the bus unit and other in the blind unit. Microcontroller is
connected to the level converter, speech recognition system, GPS and voice synthesizer. LCD
display is connected to the output of controller in bus unit. The coding is done using

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embedded C language and Hi-tech C compiler. The output of the microcontroller is connected
to the voice synthesizer in blind unit. The output of speech recognition system, GPS and level
converter is connected to the input ports of microcontroller.

D. Finding the destination

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is a space based radio navigation system that provides
reliable positioning, navigation, and timing services to civilian users on a continuous
worldwide basis. GPS receiver will provide location and time. It receives the latitude and
longitude values from the satellite. GPS based blind man device with user input interfacing
(voice based) intellectually finds the current location and gives the alert to the blind man if it
was his destination area. The system designed consists of a GPS receiver and a voice circuit
which is interfaced to the microcontroller . The microcontroller is programmed in such a way
that depending on the satellite information of location the predefined location name will be
announced. Three satellites are enough to solve for position, since space has three
dimensions. However a very small clock error multiplied by the very large speed of light the
speed at which satellite signals propagate results in a large positional error. The receiver uses
a fourth satellite to solve for x, y, z, and t which is used to correct the receiver's clock.

Microcontroller is the heart of the device. It stores the data of the current location which it
receives from the GPS system, so that it can make use of the data stored to compare with the
destination location of the user. By this it can trace out the distance from the destination and
produce an alarm to alert the user in advance. This device is designed to provide a voice
based announcement for the user, i.e., the user gets the voice which pronounces his
destination location. GPS-634R is a highly integrated smart GPS module with a ceramic GPS
patch antenna. The antenna is connected to the module via an LNA. It is capable of receiving
signals from up to 65 GPS satellites and transferring them into the precise position and timing
information that can be read over either UART port or RS232 serial port.

E. Transmission Unit

ZigBee is wireless technology developed by IEEE 802.15.4 - 2003 standard for low cost, low
power, wireless sensor networks that is used for Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Network
(LR- WPANs). The standard takes full advantage of IEEE 802.15.4 physical radio
specification that requires a low data rate, long battery life and secure networking. ZigBee is
present with the blind people and in the bus which is the used instead of RFID [21. The
ZigBee with the blind recognizes the bus which is few meter distance away from blind and
gives intimation to the blind who is carrying it. The intimation is given through the
headphones. The ZigBee in bus receives the signal from blind people and stops in bus station.
If the blind gets the required bus, he gets into bus or else he waits for the bus which he
desires to get into to reach his destination. The advantage over of ZigBee over RFID is that it
is less cost than RFID tag and RFID reader . Secondly, it has two-way communication that is
to send and receive signal at higher speed without interfering other signals like radio waves.

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 Passenger Bus Alert System for Easy Navigation of
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Zigbee Level Micro Display

converter Controller
RS232 ARM7

Power Supply
5v

Fig1.Functional Block Diagram of Bus Unit

Power supply

GPS 634R

Level Micro Voice

Zigbee Converter Controller Synthesizer
RS232 ARM7 APR9600

Microphone Speech Headset

(input wt Recognition (output to
from user) system user)
HM2007
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Fig2.Functional Block Diagram of Blind Unit

Applications

It finds application in helping blind as well as old people to navigate independently.

Acceptance by Guide

This project is accepted and will be carried out under my supervision.

________________ __________
Smt.A C Pavithra ________________ ________________ ______
GUIDE Smt.Prathibha M k Smt. Bhagyashree S.R. Dr. L. Basavaraj
Project Co-ordinator <HOD> Principal

References

[1] Hyn Kwan Lee , Ki Hwan Eom , Min Chul Kim and Trung Pham Quoc, (2010), 'Wireless
Sensor Network Apply for the Blind U-bus System', International Journal of u- and eservice,
Science and Technology,VoI.3,No.3,pp.l3-24.

[2] Jain.P.C , Vijaygopalan.K.P. (2010), 'RFID and Wireless Sensor Networks', Proceedings
of ASCNT, CDAC, Noida, India, pp. 1 - 11.

[3] Rishabh Gulati (2011), 'GPS Based Voice Alert System for the Blind', International
Journal of Scientific and Engineering Research, Volume 2, Issue 1, pp 1-5.

[4] Bolivar Torres, Qing Pang, (2010), 'Integration of an RFID reader to a Wireless sensor
network and its use to Identify an individual carrying RFID tag', International Journal of ad
hoc. sensor & ubiquitous computing ,voU, no.4,pp.1-15.

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 Passenger Bus Alert System for Easy Navigation of
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[5] Brendan D Perry, Sean Morris and Stephanie Carcieri, (2009), 'RFID Technology to Aid
in Navigation and Organization for the Blind and Partially Sighted', pp. 1-52.

[6] Herve Guyennet, Kamal Beydoun and Violeta Felea,(2011), 'Wireless sensor network
system helping navigation of the visually impaired', IEEE international conference on
Information and Communication Technologies: from Theoryto Applications,
version 1, pp. 1 5.

[7] Oyarzun, C.A and Sanchez, J.H. (2008), 'Mobile audio assistance in bus transportation for
the blind', Department of Computer Science, University of Chile, pp.279-286.

[8] Ravi Mishra and Sornnath Koley, (2012),'Voice Operated Outdoor Navigation System For
Visually Impaired Persons', International Journal of Engineering and Technology,Vol 3,
Issue 2,pp.l53-157.

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