Hi Seems a brilliant work. Any contacts of the developers of those canes. If anyone is able to establish contact of them, please do put in a mail on the list as well.
I wish they had used the word canes in lieu of stick however, that is somewhat small issue. Kind regards Harish. ----- Original Message ----- From: "l pavan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2008 9:19 PM Subject: [AI] modified stick for visually chalenged > hello list members i have read this artical while i was searching for > some thing on the net. > i thought that it would be informative to you all and so iam mailing > this to the list if you know about this pls ignore. > Modified stick for the visually challenged > Student Awards > > Sanket V. Chitagopakar and Prashant V. Harshangi > City: Gulbarg > State: Karnataka > > Sanket V. Chitagopakar (17) and Prashant V. Harshangi (17) are from > Gulbarga, Karnataka. They are both in the second year of their Pre > University Course. > Prashant's parents are doctors and his brother is studying medicine. > Sanket's father is a doctor and his mother is a housewife. His brother > is studying > in the tenth standard. > > Genesis > > It was on the 17th of July, 2002 and Gulbarga city had received the > first showers of the year. There were puddles everywhere and Sanket > happened to observe > that a blind man who was walking by with a stick fell in one. It was a > sad sight. The next day Sanket discussed this incident with his friend > Prashant > and they conceived the idea for the stick. > > Under the guidance of their teacher Mr. R. Hemant of the > Sharnabasaveshwar Public School Gulbarga, they contacted Prof. Y.N. > Ravindra who gave them a brief > idea of the circuit and they started the project. Both relate that > they faced a number of technical problems while developing the > innovation. The main > hitches were in fixing the circuit onto the stick and fixing the IR > sensors and IR LEDS. They acknowledge the guidance of Prof. Y.N. > Ravindra who gave > them many useful tips and hints, which made the development easier. > After days of hard work they prepared the circuit and the model. Next, > the prototype > was given to the local blind school for testing. The students of the > blind school found the innovative stick more convenient than the > existing alternative. > > Advantages > > Multiplexers are used to sense obstacles in different directions > simultaneously. This means, the blind person might receive different > signals on obstacles > in different directions around him through the headphone. The moisture > sensing electrodes sense the moist soil or stagnant water. This can be > especially > helpful during the rainy season. It also contains micro-switches, to > detect manholes. Finally, in order to make the system more versatile, > an anti-theft > alarm is also incorporated to warn the user if the stick is being > stolen. It is known that in most of the visually challenged, the other > sense organs are > highly developed. That's why the creators think the stick will > effectively serve the purpose. They haven't made any move to > commercialise it. This device > costs Rs.800. > > Social relevance > > Blind people totalling over 1.5 million have difficulty in travelling > and successfully sensing obstacles, manholes and puddles of stagnant > water. They need > support for all their activities. They need a third leg i.e. the stick > to walk. One of the primary problems faced by the visually challenged > is to walk > freely in a public place. The outside world is rife with dangers > especially when they leave their dwelling place, as they may fall down > and injure themselves > or stumble against an electric pillar or meet with an accident. Thus > this innovative stick has great social impact as every visually > handicapped is a potential > user. Considering the various features and its superiority over the > existing alternative even at the present cost, this stick is an > essential accessory > for blind people as it greatly enhances their mobility. > > Other applications of this innovation could be its use by sewage > workers, miners etc or in situations where light is dim/not available > or for military applications > where the need is to move around without using any light source. While > such sticks are generally known in literature, the specific > combination of features > such as water sensor, alarms, FM transmitter etc., have not been > reported in any one stick. > > Pride of the family > > "Till now nobody in our family has done anything innovative. But they > may now get inspired from us and do something in the near future!" > declare Sanket > and Prashant. These young innovators have always had a tendency to try > and understand everything. This tendency and flair for improvisation > coupled with > a curious nature played a vital role in making their innovation a > success. Their family's pride in them is revealed in one sentence, > "These two have a > genius dancing between their ears". They go on to explain, "What made > us support them in this course was their attitude towards this > project. It was not > merely mechanical but it was for a cause- to help the blind. Of course > we were a bit worried about their studies. In this competitive world > we just lay > stress on our children's academics. Yet, innovative thinking is > necessary and there lies the real creativity of every person." Sanket > and Prashant have > also made a project titled 'Automatic dipper'- the main use of which > is to automatically dip the headlights of the vehicle at nights on > highways. Many > accidents are caused, because of bright light. So this innovation > helps in avoiding such accidents. Currently Sanket and Prashant aren't > working on any > other idea. These students are grateful for the considerable > encouragement they received from their family, friends and teachers. > They have exhibited this > innovation in the Intel Science Talent Discovery Fair- 2002 and won a > prize. After this it was covered in a number of newspapers. They also > recall with > happiness, the fact that the community had rained applause and > appreciation on them in the wake of their innovation. On asking about > their dreams for the > future, Prashant explains he would like to become an engineer in the > stream of either electronics or automobiles. But Sanket is categorical > in stating > that he doesn't want to reveal his future plans to anybody, as yet. > > The electronic blind stick uses a PCB with a host of components > including Integrated Circuits (IC 555, IR Sensor), semiconductors > (Transistor-BC557, IR > LED), passive components such as resistors, preset, capacitors and > diodes along with headphones, IC base and the base 1" PVC pipe which > functions as the > stick and a separate handle. This device makes use of a total of five > sensing circuits. Three of them use IR reflective sensing techniques > to sense the > presence of obstacles. Each sensor (IR) is individually AMV gated, > stimulated by a switching circuit with assigned frequency. The > principle of working > consists of generating 32 KHz wave using the IC1 (555), which is fed > as input to the IR LEDs emitting IR rays. These rays are reflected > back from the obstacle > and the IR sensors absorb these rays and activate the gated > oscillator, which respectively turns the speaker on. An obstacle on > the right side turns on > the right side speaker; if it is on the left side, the left oscillator > triggers the speaker on that same side. In case the object is in > front, the forward > sensor sends the signal to both the oscillators, so both speakers are > turned on. The present system thus uses time decision multiplexing > technique to transmit > all the gated AMV frequencies sequentially. There are also > moisture-sensing electrodes and micro-switches. gated assigned > frequencies are multiplexed and > transmitted with the help of a FM transmitter. The use of FM > transmitter and receiver makes a wireless system possible. > > mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject > unsubscribe. > > To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please > visit the list home page at > http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in > To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
