Visually impaired baseball cap
Not so long ago I came across several developments in the field of helping the visually impaired. All of them were united by one thing - they are based on ultrasound and feedback, tactile or audio. These were canes and gloves. What usually upsets me in such messages, that the prototype showed, they started patenting, but it doesn’t reach production.
Having studied the issue, I realized that so far nothing can replace the white cane for the visually impaired. But the auxiliary means will not interfere with them. Already have an ultrasonic flashlight, glove, cane. Some of this can even be bought in stores. My task was to make a device that will help the visually impaired navigate in unfamiliar rooms and which is used in conjunction with a cane. And besides, the device should not be difficult to assemble, so that any radio amateur could help in its creation. It turned out here is such a baseball cap:
The main functionality of the device. A baseball cap is put on the head, an ultrasonic sensor measures the distance to obstacles, depending on the distance, a signal is fed into the earphone that changes according to the principle of parking sensors - the closer the obstacle, the more often the signal.
To create a baseball cap, we need:
Since the sensor has 4 legs, it is convenient to attach it to the baseball cap with their help. We make 4 holes with an awl, insert a sensor into them, solder 4 wires to it and pass them under the visor. Now we have solved the problem of mounting the sensor, since it is a protruding part and therefore has an "increased risk" of falling off.
We cut off one of the “ears” from the headphones, solder 2 pins to the wire. We make a hole in the side of the baseball cap and pass a wire through it. As a rule, a baseball cap has a small lapel of the fabric along the inner radius, it is convenient to pass the wire under it. We reach it in this way under the visor. We insert one of the earphone wires into the analog input, the second into GND.
Access to the battery must be provided for convenient replacement, which means it needs to be mounted outside the baseball cap. Therefore, we will need to make another hole. We also attach the switch to the wire from the battery and bring it out.
The sketch for arduino is very simple. In it, we measure the distance to the object and emit a sound signal with a different pause depending on the square of the distance to the obstacle. In our example, we begin to respond to an obstacle 1.5 meters before it, as practice has shown, for orientation in the room, this is quite enough. The device operates on the principle of parking sensors. The closer the obstacle, the more often the sound is heard. Acceleration is not taken into account, but changing the program accordingly is not difficult.
Final touch - cover the space under the visor of the baseball cap with a cloth. To mount an additional controller - see for yourself. It seems to me that it is quite enough to pull the fabric and glue it without sparing glue. It will be a sufficiently strong connection, the structure will be rigid, and the controller will be fixed.
This is the final product.
The cost of money is not too big. The main costs are for the baseball cap and controller itself - you can keep within 1,500 rubles. The remaining parts can be stacked at 500 rubles. So the cost is close to 2,000 rubles. But you can save if you order everything from China.
I had on hand arduino uno, in this case it is oversized. The nano or mini pro will do. An ultrasonic sensor can be bought in the same place as arduino - in online stores in the vastness of our homeland (more expensive, but faster) or in China (cheaper, but wait a long time). Faced with the fact that in the capital it is quite difficult to find for a reasonable price Arduino controllers of small form factors, the demand is apparently small.
It is clear that the idea is described and you can do everything yourself. I also understand that not everyone wants and can bother with this. So I made a website where you can pre-order such a baseball cap. Website sonarcap.ru. I must say right away that there is nothing interesting on the site and you should switch to it only if you want to place an order. If out of idle curiosity, it’s better not to, the site is not sharpened by the habr effect.
Video from the field test is available here .
Having studied the issue, I realized that so far nothing can replace the white cane for the visually impaired. But the auxiliary means will not interfere with them. Already have an ultrasonic flashlight, glove, cane. Some of this can even be bought in stores. My task was to make a device that will help the visually impaired navigate in unfamiliar rooms and which is used in conjunction with a cane. And besides, the device should not be difficult to assemble, so that any radio amateur could help in its creation. It turned out here is such a baseball cap:
The main functionality of the device. A baseball cap is put on the head, an ultrasonic sensor measures the distance to obstacles, depending on the distance, a signal is fed into the earphone that changes according to the principle of parking sensors - the closer the obstacle, the more often the signal.
To create a baseball cap, we need:
- Baseball cap
- Arduino controller
- Headphones
- Ultrasonic sensor
- Small switch
- Cron Battery Connector, Power Connector
- Crown battery
- Wires
Since the sensor has 4 legs, it is convenient to attach it to the baseball cap with their help. We make 4 holes with an awl, insert a sensor into them, solder 4 wires to it and pass them under the visor. Now we have solved the problem of mounting the sensor, since it is a protruding part and therefore has an "increased risk" of falling off.
We cut off one of the “ears” from the headphones, solder 2 pins to the wire. We make a hole in the side of the baseball cap and pass a wire through it. As a rule, a baseball cap has a small lapel of the fabric along the inner radius, it is convenient to pass the wire under it. We reach it in this way under the visor. We insert one of the earphone wires into the analog input, the second into GND.
Access to the battery must be provided for convenient replacement, which means it needs to be mounted outside the baseball cap. Therefore, we will need to make another hole. We also attach the switch to the wire from the battery and bring it out.
The sketch for arduino is very simple. In it, we measure the distance to the object and emit a sound signal with a different pause depending on the square of the distance to the obstacle. In our example, we begin to respond to an obstacle 1.5 meters before it, as practice has shown, for orientation in the room, this is quite enough. The device operates on the principle of parking sensors. The closer the obstacle, the more often the sound is heard. Acceleration is not taken into account, but changing the program accordingly is not difficult.
This is a sketch itself
#include "Ultrasonic.h"
Ultrasonic ultrasonic (7, 6);
void setup () {
pinMode (14, OUTPUT);
pinMode (13, OUTPUT);
}
void beep (int d, int l, int p) {
int to = l / (d / 1000);
digitalWrite (13, HIGH);
for (int i = 0; i
analogWrite (14, 0);
analogWrite (14, 255);
delayMicroseconds (d);
}
digitalWrite (13, LOW);
delay (p);
}
void loop () {
dist = ultrasonic.Ranging (CM); // get distance
if (dist> 150 or dist == 0) {
digitalWrite (13, LOW);
}
else {
beep (3000, 100, 20);
delay (dist * dist / 15);
}
}
Ultrasonic ultrasonic (7, 6);
void setup () {
pinMode (14, OUTPUT);
pinMode (13, OUTPUT);
}
void beep (int d, int l, int p) {
int to = l / (d / 1000);
digitalWrite (13, HIGH);
for (int i = 0; i
analogWrite (14, 255);
delayMicroseconds (d);
}
digitalWrite (13, LOW);
delay (p);
}
void loop () {
dist = ultrasonic.Ranging (CM); // get distance
if (dist> 150 or dist == 0) {
digitalWrite (13, LOW);
}
else {
beep (3000, 100, 20);
delay (dist * dist / 15);
}
}
Final touch - cover the space under the visor of the baseball cap with a cloth. To mount an additional controller - see for yourself. It seems to me that it is quite enough to pull the fabric and glue it without sparing glue. It will be a sufficiently strong connection, the structure will be rigid, and the controller will be fixed.
This is the final product.
The cost of money is not too big. The main costs are for the baseball cap and controller itself - you can keep within 1,500 rubles. The remaining parts can be stacked at 500 rubles. So the cost is close to 2,000 rubles. But you can save if you order everything from China.
I had on hand arduino uno, in this case it is oversized. The nano or mini pro will do. An ultrasonic sensor can be bought in the same place as arduino - in online stores in the vastness of our homeland (more expensive, but faster) or in China (cheaper, but wait a long time). Faced with the fact that in the capital it is quite difficult to find for a reasonable price Arduino controllers of small form factors, the demand is apparently small.
It is clear that the idea is described and you can do everything yourself. I also understand that not everyone wants and can bother with this. So I made a website where you can pre-order such a baseball cap. Website sonarcap.ru. I must say right away that there is nothing interesting on the site and you should switch to it only if you want to place an order. If out of idle curiosity, it’s better not to, the site is not sharpened by the habr effect.
Video from the field test is available here .