A NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED USING EMBEDDED TECHNOLOGY

India is one of the countries with a huge population of blind and visually impaired with very least population of them using Navigation systems. Many navigation systems are available in the market but most of them are either costly or lack in accuracy and user friendliness. Bearing all this in mind we have designed and implemented a GSM and GPS based navigation system. This system has an ARM cortex multiprocessor as the core element. While navigating in an unknown geographical area, the user can effectively use this system to precisely know where he/she is using the GPS. The user is provided with a touch keypad and a microphone, using which he can take notes like mapping the area for future movement there. Also the user can obtain information regarding weather and light conditions at the given time and area using the temperature and light sensors provided. The blind usually uses a cane or walking stick to identify obstacles in the path and move around. But sometimes it cannot detect obstacles like overhanging tree branch or a person suddenly moving across. Here the user can be warned by auditory impulses regarding the obstacle using sensors. Similarly the visually impaired can be lost in a surrounding or if he wishes to convey an emergency signal to his caretaker, a simple one touch button can send a SMS via the GSM module to the caretaker, regarding the precise location of the user. At time of low light, say during evening or night, the light sensor detects it and a LED light goes on. This enables the user to indicate other persons in the surrounding area that he is there. These are the various applications of this system using modern computer science and communication technologies where cheap and effective service can be given to the users.