Final Year Project Proposal 2o814

Addis Ababa University Addis Ababa Institute of Technology School of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Braille reading and writing device for visual impaired person

Electronics

Chala tesfaye ATR/5601/05 Getamesay Bayou ATR/7856/05

Computer

Daniel Gebreyohannes ATR/3676/05

Advisors:

Nebyu Yonas Sutri Date of submission: November 3 2016

Abstract Visually impaired people face difficulties in interacting and gaining full advantage of computers and technologies. Recently, and with the fast evolution in technology, researchers proposed to give the blinds the ability to take advantage of these advancements. Accordingly, this paper introduces a new communication channel for visually impaired people. This project introduces simple design for a braille, comprising a design aims to produce a device that perform vibrations in six position of visual impaired person hand.it include a twoway communication system that convert a braille system to digitalized form and the reverse that converts a text in to a braille system using a motor vibrator which is in the form of a braille system. Which the blind person can recognise.it also used a sound system that converts the characters in to sound system.

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Table of Contents

Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………….…...1 Introduction and Background….……………………………………………………….……4 Problem Statement………………………………………………………………………….….7 Motivation………………………………………………………………………………………6 Objective………………………………………………………………………………………...8 Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………....9 Deliverable……………………………………………………………………………………...12 Resource Requirement and Cost Breakdown…………………………………………….…13 Tentative Project Plan………………………...……………………………………………….14 References……………………………………………………………………………………...15

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List of figures figure 1 structure of braille cell…………………………………………

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figure 2 The braille alphabet……………………………………………….

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figure 3 Standard Braille symbols for numbers……………………………. and special symbols figure 4 block diagram for braille reader and writer……………………….

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List of Table Table 1 project cost breakdown………………………………………………………… 14 Table 2 tentative time plan……………………………………………………………… 13

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Introduction and Background The idea behind the Universal Braille System started in 1821 by Louis Braille, since then, the Braille system has become the most adopted system for written communication for visually impaired individuals. The Braille system is a method which translates letters to a combination of dots in order to help individuals with sight defect and both blind deaf. Using Braille, blind individuals can read a character by touch. The individual can read a Braille character by rolling a finger over its six-dot or its eight-dot representation. The combinations of these dots are specifically formed by raising the pins to represent a certain letter or symbol. A Braille reader can learn how to read Braille characters by first learning the position of the dots on the cell, and then by memorizing the representations of all the letters, numbers and characters. A full Braille cell includes six raised dots arranged in two lateral rows each having three dots. The dot positions are identified by numbers from one through six. 64 solutions are possible from using one or more dots. A single cell can be used to represent an alphabet letter, number, punctuation mark, or even an entire word

Fig. 1 Structure of basic Braille cell 4

Fig 2. The braille alphabet

Fig. 3 Standard Braille symbols for numbers and special symbols

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Problem Statement Due to the lack of vision, the blind people cannot easily access the latest information and technologies. Modern technological enhancements cannot be easily affordable to the visually impaired people because of their higher cost and the less portability. That is why it has become pretty necessary to develop a low cost, portable and a fast Braille System for the visually impaired people. This project introduces new design for a braille, comprising a design aims to produce a product to perform vibrations in six position of blind person right hand. A low cost and robust design will provide the blind with an affordable and reliable tool also it produces the simple technique for reading and writing braille for visual impaired person.

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Motivation our motivation is that we real have the ion to help the visual impaired people to be advantages on the technologies since they use braille system as a main source of formal communication. so we have decided to make the braille system digitalized and to make much more easy for the visual impaired person to read and write. And also to make our project low cost which is affordable and easy to use and handle.

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Objective In this project The general problem we are going to solve is that due to the lack of sight, the blind people cannot easily access the latest information and the technologies. Modern technological enhancements cannot be easily affordable to the visually impaired people because of their higher cost and the less portability. That is why it has become pretty necessary to develop a low cost and portable writing and reading Braille System for the visually impaired people.

This project introduces new design for a braille writing and reading, the design aims to produce a product that reads text from computer and change it to braille equivalent and perform vibrations in six position of blind person right hand. the vibration proceeds with some interval of time until the end of the text. it also has a writing technique using pad or push buttons so the blind person can write by switching the buttons using a braille system and the device can interpret the braille writing in to a text form that the receiver can understand. In order to avoid spelling error the device produce a sound to announce the typed letter. A low cost and robust design will provide the visual impaired people with an affordable and reliable tool.

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Methodology The project generally has software and hardware parts so it is divided into two phases. Phase one involves the programing and simulation of the project. phase two is the construction of hardware and delivering a working prototype. Phase one it is mainly the programing part. The programing is done in C using Arduino integrated development environment(IDE). this is subdivided into Stage 1. programing the conversion of input text to brailleThis involves accepting the data(text) from the serial device and process it by microcontroller and produce a different combination of values on the relay. The relay intern drives the vibrating motor to produce braille combination for English alphabet, numbers and special characters and create vibration on the finger of the visual impaired person. Stage 2. programming the conversion of braille input to text – this involves accepting the different combination of input from the braille pad (6 push buttons) and process it by microcontroller and translates it into text. In order to avoid typing error speaker spell out the typed alphabetic letter. Stage 3.the construction of the circuits and simulate the devices using simulating software. second phase involves the hardware construction for the device.

Power supply

comput er

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Description of the components Power supply it provides voltage for the board and component. Arduino Uno can be powered from USB or external power plug. This power is the standard 5V from USB or 12V from the external source. Microcontroller Control the overall logic in the device. this include reading text from the serial module and converts it to the Braille format using. It sends the corresponding control signals to the vibrator motor via I/O port this patterns are recognized by the impaired person. It also reads the keys from the writing pad and convert it to the alphanumeric form and transmits the entered message through the serial port. Voice announcement is also made by the controller. For this project we are intended to use Arduino Uno R3 SPEAKER Loud speaker is used for making the voice announcement

Serial port The serial communication between device and computer is established using RS-232 cable and MAX232 chip.RS-232 is a standard for serial communication transmission of data. It formally defines the signals connecting between a DTE (data terminal equipment) such as a computer terminal, and a DCE (data circuit-terminating equipment or data communication equipment), such as a modem. MAX232 is a 16 pin IC which is used to interface the external I/O device to microcontroller. Here it interfaces the microcontroller and the computer for effective communication through RS232 cable. in case of Arduino Uno there is built in chip that can control the serial communication between microcontroller and the computer through the Universal Serial Bus (USB).so instead of RS232 cable we use USB cable. Vibrator motor it is the main component in this project. It consists of 6 relays (or transistor) connected to the I/O port of the controller via driver circuit. Relays are on/off 10

according to the input from microcontroller. As per the received the motor set to vibration for specific period of time. Thus the blind person will be able to sense the braille letter.

Writing pad The braille translator has a dual purpose of converting braille text into words and text to braille. The writing is done using the writing pad.it consists of six push buttons i similar to the braille patterns. The visual impaired person put braille letter for English alphabet by pushing those buttons.

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Deliverables At the end of the academic year, we will come with a complete standalone combo device with a capability of translating text to braille and braille input to text.it also have voice assistance for spell checking while writing. this device is robust and provide to be helpful in the future and it will be available in low cost which easy to use by any visual impaired person.

Resource Requirement and Cost Breakdown The cost listed for this projects are according to the current price rate and this might be varying accordingly. 12

equipment required   

Multimeter Oscilloscope Soldiering equipment

These materials will be provided by AAIT LABS  

Personal computer Programing and simulating software

at hand at hand

Component for the proposed device No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Items LPC2148 RS232 CABLE MAX232 Chip Vibrator motor Relay Speaker Push buttons Arduino Uno board

Quantity 1 1 1 6 6 1 6 1

price in dollar 24 20 10 29 25 20 10 50 188

Total Table 1 project cost breakdown

Tentative Project Plan This project is planned to be complete in 2 semesters (1 year) time. The three stages will be complete within the first semester and phase two will be complete with in the second semester of the academic year.

Activity

Time period

Proposal writing 13

Phase one Stage one Stage two Stage three

November 1 to November 29 December 1 to January 1 January 1-jannary 15

Phase two

1 semester (march-June)

Table 2

tentative project plan

References https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

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