CaneEye: An Assistant For The Blind

Hello All!
My name is Samuel Cadotte and I am a student at Kalaheo High School which is located on the island of Oahu in the state of Hawaii. Since 6th grade, I have been participating in science fairs and have won almost 30 different awards over the past 5 years. This year, I went to the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF 2017) to show my project to the whole world. I created a robotic arm that was able to be manipulated via virtual reality to allow people to remotely work in dangerous conditions. I enjoy building projects that make the world a better place.

For my next project, I want to create an intelligent ‘cane’ that can help people with visual impairments much more than existing solutions. The cane will be able to notify the user of objects in front or on the sides by making a noise in the surround sound type headphones. The cane will also have a small camera and LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) so that it can recognize objects and people in the room and notify the user by using the headphones. For safety resasons, the headphones will not block out all of the noise as there will be a microphone that can filter out all of the unnecessary sounds and keep the car horns and people talking. Lastly the system will have a GPS so that it can give directions and show the user where to go.

I need the funds to purchase:
-A micro controller such as a Raspberry Pi
-A webcam
-A GPS system
-LIDAR sensors for object detection
-A surround sound headset

If there are surplus funds, I will build additional systems to as many people as I can to get feedback from patients who desperately need a system like this.

I will keep you all posted!
Mahalo!