• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.1260-1264
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• 2008

An official report printed in June, 2005 represents that there are 180 thousands people with visual impairments in Korea, and 10 thousands of people with visual impairments are newly increased by every year since 2000. They are neglected from getting education, selecting job, and enjoying recreation activity. Above all, they have strong restriction when they are walking on the street; they are facing difficulty and inconvenience. Many smart cane products were introduced but expensive cost blocked popularization of them. In this study we have an object to development of smart cane that is chip and proper for korean street. For this, we suggest basic design of smart cane and experiment on ultrasonic sensors for visually impaired person.

• IEMEK Journal of Embedded Systems and Applications
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.47-56
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• 2016

There are many assistive devices for the visually impaired. They are becoming smart. In this paper, we propose a device that help route guidance for a visually impaired person. It is composed of a smart phone, cane, and hands-free devices. The smart phone helps a route guidance. The cane detects an obstacle and transmits it to the hands-free device. The hands-free device communicates with a visually impaired person. We here present their architecture, signal flow, configuration, and their circuit diagrams.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.23 no.8
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• pp.101-106
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• 2018

Most people with visual impairments can not use both hands freely because they carry a cane. And unnecessary contact with people around you during walking can occur. Other guides include guide dogs, but the price and maintenance cost are expensive and difficult to manage. In this paper, we propose a smart glove, which prevents unnecessary contact when blind people use the cane, detects the obstacle ahead by using the ultrasonic sensor, and informs the presence of the obstacle by using the servo motor. In addition, the electrostatic proximity touch module on the fingers executes a specific application of the smart phone connected by Bluetooth when the finger touches each other. It is designed to allow you to use text or phone calls when you are lost or in an emergency. The results of this study will be used as a tool to provide a more convenient life for the visually impaired.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.167-175
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• 2018

Despite the rapid development of IT technology, people with visual impairments still use simple forms of walking sticks and need more advanced walking aids. Smart Cane, which is developed based on Internet service and sensor, can provide high safety and convenience compared to existing sticks for visually impaired people by conveying peripheral information and walking situation to these visually impaired people through voice and vibration. In this paper, we propose and implement SmartKane to overcome lack of miniaturization, user friendly form, and sensing sensitivity, which have been pointed out as a problem of existing SmartKane.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.167-173
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• 2014

A white cane is used by many people who are blind or visually impaired. The studies and developments in the field of smart electronic white cane have been progressed to improve walking safety of the visually handicapped person. In this paper, we describe a situation-awareness white cane which support and guide walking of the visually handicapped person by giving information of surrounding situation through connection of a white cane and a mobile device. There are easily accessible buttons in the situation-awareness white cane. These buttons is connected with the mobile device by blue-tooth, so by pushing these buttons, the visually handicapped person can receive sound-guidance. As a result, the visually handicapped person can walk more safely by getting more information of situation.

• The Journal of the Institute of Internet, Broadcasting and Communication
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.137-143
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• 2017

Facilities for pedestrian safety of the visually impaired are scarce on the walkway and crosswalk. Braille blocks are installed on the walkways and RF controlled signal lights and sound generators are installed on the crosswalk at the main intersection for the visually impaired. An RF remote control system using one frequency has a problem of simultaneously operating nearby signal lamps and sound generators at an intersection. In this paper, we develop the smart cane that uses a beacon to identify the signal lamp and sound generators installed on the crosswalk at intersections and to operate the signal lamps and sound generators in the direction of the walk by IR communication. The developed smart cane is able to provide the pedestrian navigation for the blind by interworking with mobile apps through Bluetooth communication.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.36 no.4
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• pp.291-297
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• 2009

This paper introduces an electronic travel aid, named SmartWand, which detects obstacles using a ultrasonic sensor. In addition to obstacle detection, the SmartWand senses color information of objects and the environmental brightness. It is designed to be attached to a ordinary white cane in order to detect the obstacles at head-hight which cannot be covered by the cane. We have improved the first version of the SmartWand based on a user evaluation. The second version is much lighter and smaller than the previous one. It has been enhanced by two new functions. The SmartWand eliminates impact errors due to tapping the ground using a moving average filtering algorithm and restricts the detection range to the path in the moving direction using an acceleration sensor. We have tested these functions in various environments to determine the parameters for these functions.

• 한국HCI학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.02a
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• pp.251-255
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• 2008

We have developed an electronic aids, called SmartWand, which can help visually impaired people walk safely and tell them an object's color and environmental brightness SmartWand can inform visually impaired people of the dangerous obstacles around which they can't notice by the white cane such as a large panel with supporting poles on the street. Especially we have lmproved the previous version of SmartWand by reflecting the result of user study.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Computer Information Conference
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• 2021.01a
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• pp.181-182
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• 2021

시각장애인이 길거리에 나설 때 주변에 보행 안전을 위한 시설이 많이 부족하다. 본 연구에서는 시각장애인에게 전방의 장애물을 알려주어 안전한 보행을 위한 스마트 지팡이를 제안한다. 초음파센서를 통하여 사물을 감지하여 진동으로 보행자의 진로 방향을 안내하며 조도 센서를 통하여 다른 사람들이 원거리에서 인식 할 수 있게 발광 기능을 포함한다. 또한, 긴급버튼을 통하여 비상시 보호자에게 알릴 수 있는 통보기능도 내장하고 있다. 향후 소형화와 지능화를 통하여 사회적 약자인 시각장애인의 안전한 보행권을 확보할 수 있는 기술로 발전시키고자 한다.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Computer Information Conference
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• 2022.07a
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• pp.651-652
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• 2022

시각장애인들의 가장 큰 불편함인 보행을 도와주는 수단은 흰 지팡이와 안내견이 전부이다. 이를 개선하고자 본 논문에서는 센서 프로그래밍(초음파 센서로 장애물 인지 후 모터로 진동 전달), led(시각장애인 인지), RFID(교통카드)를 아두이노, IoT 기술을 사용하여 시각장애인 수(약 25만 명)의 비해 턱없이 부족한 안내견들(80여 마리)에 준하는 스마트 지팡이를 구현하였다.