Color detector for the visually handicapped

• Main Author: Foong, Pei Zhen
• Other Authors: Lee Peng Hin
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2022
• Subjects: Engineering::Electrical and electronic engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/158013
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Vision is one of the important senses in a human body. Without vision, identifying colors would be difficult for the visually impaired people. Colors are very important in our daily life which may have been taken for granted. Furthermore, there is a rise in the number of older adults and elderlies experiencing some sort of vision loss health condition. Dementia is also one of the common diseases found in this specific age group. However, even if the current products selling in the market for the visually impaired, these products seemed to not be as efficient or accurate for the users. The products do not provide functions that may provide some help for more specific needs in this group of target users. Potential areas that call for a need for improvements were identified. Areas such as the low accuracy of the color detection system, and the lack of functions that can be catered to and provide better help for the group of visually impaired. Hence, a prototype was built to test in increasing the accuracy of the color detection system, detecting basic colors like red, blue, green, black, and white. Apart from detecting the basic colors, money notes of $2, $5 and $10 can be detected. This is an important feature as money notes plays an important factor in our daily lives and handling simple tasks such as paying over the counter. A color sensor mobile application was created to provide additional features such as reading out the detected color, send SOS for help to an emergency contact, knowing their current location and sending this information when an emergency arises. All in all, this project aims to provide a better solution for the visually impaired people by analyzing the current products in the market and identifies any areas that can be improved. This report examines the various available components and select the feasible ones to design and develop the portable color detector for the visually impaired. Discussion on the challenges faced and potential of future work will also be revealed at the end of this report.