The Madras Section of the Sri Sairam Engineering College Student Branch has teamed up with Dr. V. S. Natarajan Geriatric Foundation to create a smart cane for use by people who are visually impaired. Though similar products exist, they look to create a cane that is more affordable and less complex than others on the market.
This cane will have medicine reminders, fall detection, obstacle detection, Google Maps navigation, and physical fitness tracking. The device has a rechargeable battery that allows for 24 hours of use with 1 hour of charging time. It operates with a Bluetooth headset, microphone, RTC module, accelerometer and gyroscope, as well as a Google Assistant API to make these features possible.
This project has been given a grant of $746.00 as part of EPICS in IEEE’s Access and Abilities Competition.