In Kastamonu, high school students developed a smart cane that warns with sound and vibration in a project they started to help a visually impaired employee at their school.
Özlem Burma Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School 11th grade students Yusuf Burak Tunç and Eren Erkek decided to develop a smart cane to help a visually impaired officer working at their school.
The students, who worked for about 2 years under the supervision of industrial automation technologies teacher Mehmet Özdem, aimed to facilitate the daily lives of the visually impaired by equipping a wooden cane with sensors.
The cane, which has sound and vibration features added, warns with both sound and vibration with varying intensity according to the distance of the obstacle as the user approaches the obstacle.
The students, who exhibited the cane at the Science Festival organized by the Provincial Directorate of National Education in Cumhuriyet Square, aim to develop their projects.
Yusuf Burak Tunç told AA correspondent that visually impaired people have difficulties in daily life, so they are working on this issue.
Stating that they observed that the visually impaired officer in their school had difficulties in his daily life, Tunç said, “Without the lines, he cannot walk on the sidewalk. The cane we developed makes life easier for the disabled. It makes a sound when something comes in front of it, and the sound increases when it gets closer. The vibration increases or decreases according to its proximity.”
Eren Erkek emphasized that they aim to help the visually impaired with the smart cane and said, “We will take our project further as we get the ideas of the visually impaired. The signal that the smart cane sends across thanks to the sensor comes back when there is an obstacle in front of it. The sensor has a detection distance of 70-80 centimeters. If we develop it further, we think it will make life easier for the disabled.”
“We added a vibration motor because the sound was not enough”
Mehmet Özdem pointed out that the students at their school had previously won degrees in robot competitions organized by the Ministry of National Education and universities with different projects they had developed, and said:
“Our student came up with such an idea. Then we thought that the person using the cane may have both visual and hearing impairments. As the sound is not enough, we added a vibration motor. As we approach the obstacle, the sound and vibration increase with the logic of the parking sensor of the vehicles. We have adjusted the software in this way. We have aspects that can be improved. We failed to adjust the cane to see the pit in front of it, we will improve this too.”
Visually impaired Erdinç Karakaş, who visited the festival, stated that his disability was congenital and said, “I use a cane while walking. I tried this cane. It beeps and vibrates when there is an obstacle. It is a successful project, it helps. We walk more carefully when the sound comes.”
