Notes

TECHNO-AID

(MOBILE HAND GLOVE FOR BLIND)

My project titled ‘TECHNO-AID’ aims to provide technologically feasible solutions through virtual assistance which ensures a comfortable and easy life for the visually challenged by using a smart technology that eradicates the dependency of individuals with special needs through research and innovation in affordable technology.

In this developing world of communication systems, people feel that having a smart phone is no more a luxury but is a growing need in today’s time. People are largely fascinated about the latest model releases of popular smart phones, either due to their sleek design, compactness in size or their improvised features or UI design. However, such advances in technology are not much practically useful for the visually challenged.

This device is an automated glove which can be easily worn on a hand and serves similar to a mobile telephony device as it can be used for making or receiving calls with utmost simplicity without the need to be able to utilize the much complicated UI design offered by most of the mobile phones nowadays. This device has been specially designed keeping in mind the requirements of a visually challenged person without the need of any visual display unit for operating the system. This device has integrated mic and speaker at small finger and thumb finger respectively and enables the use of the various segments/divisions on our fingers as a dial pad for selecting the phone number to which the call is to be made. It can also be used for receiving calls and for making emergency calls and sending current GPS location of the individual when in trouble/in need of help to their closest relative or guardian, with the press of a single button, located in the palm region on the glove. It works on an ARDUINO UNO microcontroller board and others similar ARDUINO COMPATIBLE boards like INTEL EDISON, INTEL GALILEO GEN 2 etc and uses GSM and GPS module for serial communication.

WHY MOBILE HAND GLOVE???

• Talking telephones, big button phones, and telephones with Braille keypad already exist which make it easier for blind and low vision callers to handle their phone calls, however these are much expensive and need much time for training and usage.

• Unlike ordinary smart phones, this wearable telephonic hand glove does not much expertise in operation and can be simply handled with a minute’s practice.

• It is easy to handle, cost effective and has no intricate user interface, thus making it much simple to use and less complicated.

WHAT’S NEW IN MY SYSTEM?

FEATURES:

 This device is an automated glove which can be easily worn on a hand and serves similar to a mobile telephony device as it can be used for making or receiving calls with utmost simplicity without the need to be able to utilize the much complicated UI design offered by most of the mobile phones nowadays.

 This device has been specially designed keeping in mind the requirements of a visually challenged person without the need of any visual display unit for operating the system. It can also be used for receiving calls and for making emergency calls and sending current GPS location of the individual when in trouble/in need of help to their closest relative or guardian.

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION:

 For construction of WEARABLE MOBILE TELEPHONIC GLOVE, various pins are attached to a corresponding finger element located on a glove which represents the corresponding digits to be dialed for making a call.

 When the pin of a digit is pressed against another pin placed on the thumb region (it corresponds to GND), the digit gets successfully registered. Once a call is successively completed, the user may press the ‘call end’ button to end the ongoing call.

 However, when a call is made to the mobile glove, it is signalled through a ringing buzzer which ends as soon as the ‘receive call’ button is pressed and the user is eligible for attending calls.

 Moreover, the device provides an additional feature of making emergency calls when the user is in trouble or is in need of help. Simply by pressing the ‘emergency call’ button, a call is made to the nearest police station and a message is sent to the user’s guardian or closest relative or friend, thus informing them about a threatful situation.

 Thus, the mobile telephony glove greatly simplifies the task of making and receiving calls for the visually challenged without the need of any additional visual display unit.