STO DOMINGO NATIONAL TRADE SCHOOL

Baloc, Sto. Domingo Nueva Ecija

Development of wearable obstacle detection system for visually impaired people using

ultrasonic range sensors

Introduction

Eye is one of the important instrument of our body especially for the sense of sight. 20/20

vision is considered normal vision, meaning you can read at 20 feet a letter that most human

being should be able to read at 20 feet. The standard placement of the eye chart is on wall thats20

feet away from your eyes. Since many doctors offices do not have rooms that are 20 feet long, in

a smaller room the eye chart hang behind the patient chair, using mirrors to make it appear in front

of you at a simulated distance of 20 feet. In short term human eye are very spectacular instrument

made of our creator.

So technology was invented an ultrasonic sensor, camera, radar laser sensor etc. Those

devices are built in to detect in the path of the user. Sound consists of oscillating waves through a

medium (such as air) with the pitch being determined by the closeness of those waves to each

other, defined as the frequency. Only some of the sound spectrum (the range of sound wave

frequencies) is audible to the human ear, defined as the Acoustic range. Very low frequency

sound below Acoustic is defined as Infrasound, with high frequency sounds above, called

Ultrasound. Ultrasonic sensors are designed to sense object proximity or range using ultrasound

reflection, similar to radar, to calculate the time it takes to reflect ultrasound waves between the

sensor and a solid object. Ultrasound is mainly used because its inaudible to the human ear and is

relatively accurate within short distances. You could of course use Acoustic sound for this purpose,

but you would have a noisy robot, beeping every few seconds. The sensor output signal (ECHO)
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Baloc, Sto. Domingo Nueva Ecija

on the HC-SR04 is rated at 5V. However, the input pin on the Raspberry Pi GPIO is rated at 3.3V.

Sending a 5V signal into that unprotected 3.3V input port could damage your GPIO pins, which is

something we want to avoid! Well need to use a small voltage divider circuit, consisting of two

resistors, to lower the sensor output voltage to something our Raspberry Pi can handle. We intend

to use Ultrasonic (US) from Raspberry Pi sensor to use or detect to the path way. Usually impaired

people they use a stick so they can know whats ahead of them. Ultrasonic sensor were very useful

in establishment such as car, building and even door. So this research show if the ultrasonic sensor

bring to the impaired people to help them of their situation and encourage them that nothing is

impossible when it comes to technology. The US sensor using a distance measurement system

(DMS) tested to an object but it will proceed to test in blind people. And the sensor has 2 second

to get the measurement of an object. The sensor has 15 degree of its width and can measure 250

cm. So the research is not only aim for conducting for the future but it can lead to better help of

those Person with Disability (PWD).

 STO DOMINGO NATIONAL TRADE SCHOOL
Baloc, Sto. Domingo Nueva Ecija

MATERIALS AND METHOD

Sample, Preparation and Programing Procedure

Equipments facilities of Computer Laboratory and Electronics Technology Laboratory of

Sto. Domingo National Trade School was applied in the research with proper authorization. The

tools and apparatus used are male to female wire, male to male wire, female to female wire, 1k

ohms, 2k ohms0, breadboard, PCB board, pliers, soldering iron, active buzzer, glue gun, glue,

metal wires, and box.

The main components used were the Raspberry pi 3, and HC-SR04. The raspberry pi 3 is

a small credit card sized computer that can be connected to your tv and keyboard. It is mainly used

for basic electronic projects and a good prototyping for students because of its ease of use. The

HC-SR04 is a cheap ultrasonic range sensor that can detect objects from 2cm to 400cm. It has a

transmitter that generates a pulse, a receiver that detects the pulse, and a control unit.

Figure Raspberry Pi (left) 3 and HC-SR04 (right)

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Baloc, Sto. Domingo Nueva Ecija

Assembling the HC-SR04 sensor with the Raspberry Pi

The HC-SRO4 and Raspberry Pi 3 were initially connected using only a breadboard and a

combination of male to female wires. The VCC pin of the HC-SRO4 was connected to Pin # 2 of

the Raspberry Pi to provide it with 5V, while the sensor was grounded with Pin # 6 of the Raspberry

Pi. The trigger pin controlling the transmitter and the echo pin controlling the receiver of the sensor

were connected to Pin #11 and Pin # 13 of the Raspberry Pi as shown in Figure .

Figure Raspberry Pi 3, HC-SR04 schematic diagram

The sensor-raspberry pi setup is being controlled by a simple python code that constantly

measures the distance of detected obstacles and outputs it in the screen.

CHECKING ACCURACY OF DISTANCE

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Baloc, Sto. Domingo Nueva Ecija

The Ultrasonic sensor were tested the angular ranged. Putting an object on the pathway in

the sensor in 50 cm, 100cm, 150 cm, 200 cm, 250 cm, and 300 cm long. Taking a reading for 10

times for each distance. The object being detected is a box with 8.4 cm height, 7.5 cm length, and

5cm width. The difference of the actual distance and measured distance was recorded to get the

average error distance of the sensor set up.

CHECKING ACCURACY OF ANGULAR RANGE

The ultrasonic sensors were tested based on angular range of accuracy. This test will

showed what sensor accuracy. Putting an object in to the pathway of the sensor by 10 cm, 20 cm,

and 30 cm by its degree of -30, -25, -20, -15, -10, -5, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 degrees. Taking a

reading 10 times for each angle. The number of times the object was detected was recorded.

ASSEMBLY OF OBSTACLE DETECTION SYSTEM

The Raspberry pi was putted into a box with a shape of 8.7cm height, 8.7cm length and 4.8cm

width of the body and a cover of 10.1cm height, 10.1cm length and 1.5cm. The connection used

in the breadboard were translated into the PCB Board with a schematic as shown in Figure . The

HC-SR04 sensors were assembled into the box by putting two holes in the cover of the box. The

buzzer, and button were put into the box by poking slots for the both devices. Another hole was

put at the bottom of the box so the main plug of the power source or the power bank may fit. Wires

placed at the top and bottom to stabilize and maintain the direction of the sensor. Glue stick was
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Baloc, Sto. Domingo Nueva Ecija

also put at the holes holding the sensors to further stabilize the sensors. A modified version of the

python code was also developed to handle the load of another sensor, and control the active buzzer

and button.

Figure Schematic for Two sensor Raspberry Pi PCB

Statistical Analysis

Data were analyzed using Descriptive Statistics method. Microsoft Excel 2016 program

used

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

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Baloc, Sto. Domingo Nueva Ecija

The accurate detection of objects is a very crucial part of developing any obstacle detection

system for visually impaired people as it would affect the safety of prospective users. The

researchers aim to determine the extent of the errors of distance and compare it with the average

stride length of 87.1728 cm for males and 74.42cm for females (Mason, et.al 2005) as point of

reference.

Results for Accuracy Testing in varying Distances

The US sensor has a stated range of 2cm to 400cm. Table show the average error measured

for the distances of 50cm, 100cm, 150cm, and 200cm. The next distances were no longer measured

as the US sensor started to return a number of out of range statements for distances of 250cm to

400cm and was deemed unreliable for our purposes. The results show that the error measured only

ranged at 0.7cm to 1.008cm. The highest error measured is still small; only 1.1% compared to the

average stride length of 87.1728 for males, and 1.3% compared to the average stride length of

74.42cm for females.

Table 1. Average Error in Distance Measured

Mean Std. Error % of Male stride % of Female Stride

50cm 0.711 0.013 0.8% 0.9%

100cm 0.216 0.048 0.2% 0.3%

150cm 0.349 0.093 0.4% 0.4%

200cm 1.008 0.185 1.1% 1.3%

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Baloc, Sto. Domingo Nueva Ecija

Results for Accuracy Testing in varying Angular Range

The stated angular range of the US sensor is 30 degrees. To determine the ability of the US

sensor to detect objects at varying angular ranges of -20 degrees to 20 degrees at 10cm and 20cm

away, the average error measured was obtained. Further angles were not measured as the US

sensor started to return out of range measurements at 20 degrees. The results show 100 %

detection for -15 to 15 degrees and only 50% detection for -20 degrees and 20 degrees for both

10cm and 20cm distance.

-20 -15 -10 -5 5 10 15 20

10cm 50% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 50%

20cm 50% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 50%

Result of Assembling the Obstacle Detection System