THE GUIDECANE

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INTRODUCTION

Guide cane is a vibrating handgrip for the vision impaired, namely for blinds. This aids blinds by warning them to emerging objects in a short time and effective way by spatial sensing. When a vision impaired person goes on the road, many appearing objects -may be people- can clash him/her and can cause a hazardous impact. The way that this person protects him/her generally becomes by manual shaping of walking sticks or a cane on the front of him/her to detect the object. However, this way can be disturbing for other people on the road. For overcoming this problem an electronic guide cane that warns blinds by vibrating cane’s handgrip according to the objects’ distances in different intensity by using a vibrating motor is required.


SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
Figure 1 shows a blind user walking with the GuideCane. Much like the widely used white cane, the user holds the GuideCane in front of him/herself while walking. The GuideCane is quite a bit heavier than the white cane, but it rolls on wheels that support the Guide- Cane's weight during regular operation. At the distal end of the GuideCane is a pair of guide wheels (see Figs. 1and 2). A steering servo motor, operating under the control of the GuideCane's built-in computer, can steer the guide wheels left and right, relative to the cane.


FUNCTIONAL DESCRIPTION
During operation, the user holds the GuideCane in one hand, so that the guide wheels contact the ground right in front of the user (possibly offset slightly to the side of the hand that holds the cane). The user prescribes a desired direction of motion with the miniature joystick. This direction command is understood to be relative to the current absolute direction read off the fluxgate compass. For example, if the compass is facing straight north and the user indicates the direction to be “forward” (by pushing the joystick forward), then the system would lock into “straight north” as the desired direction of travel and steer the guide wheels so that the compass is always facing north.



THE WHITE CANE
The most successful and widely used travel aid for the blind is the white cane. It is used to detect obstacles on the ground, uneven surfaces, holes, steps, and puddles. The white cane is inexpensive, and is so lightweight and small that it can be folded and tucked away in a pocket. However, users must be trained in the use of the white cane over periods of 100 hours – a substantial “hidden” cost. More high-tech devices, discussed next, have been on the market for many years but appear to lack utility, and, consequently, are not widely used [Blasch and Long, 1989].