Technical Field:

The presented invention relates to a walking stick used by persons with disabilities while walking, and in particular relates to a smart walking stick with a monitoring system and suitable for all occasions, which increases environmental awareness..

State of the Art:

The most important training that facilitates a visually impaired person to travel by himself is orientation and mobility training. Orientation and mobility training is a training that includes the ability to recognize the environment by making use of all kinds of signs, clues, directions, turns, distance relations, sounds and smells and to act independently and safely using the knowledge and techniques acquired. Orientation is the process of determining one's own position and relationship to important objects in the environment, using one's senses; Mobility includes the capacity, possibility, and willingness to move around a person. It is a danger for the visually impaired to move without a cane or even take a step. The visually impaired always takes his steps forward with his walking stick. It is always dangerous for a visually impaired person to take a step from side to side or back.

Today, yellow stripes are arranged to help the visually impaired walk on the road. With these strips lined up one after the other, the disabled individual tries to walk and find their direction by making any cane forward and backward, left and right movements, lifting and lowering, and also feeling with their feet. These protruding paths can cause the feet of visually impaired individuals to sprain and the canes to break when their canes are caught on the ledges. In addition, the arrangement of these lanes for the entire road route causes financial and labor loss for the state. In addition, these strips only help to determine one's position, do not increase awareness of the environment and one cannot learn about the environment during cultural trips.

The patent application JP2008272373A describes the ‘Charging system of walking aid stick, walking aid stick and charging method of walking aid stick’ PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow the visually impaired to move at ease in a location where he/she has gone and easily charge batteries equipped in a walking aid stick. ; SOLUTION: This charging system of the walking aid stick consists of a battery charger, a user-worn terminal worn on the visually-impaired and having a speaker, and the walking aid stick . This system is configured to be easily charged by just applying the tip of the walking aid stick to a charge terminal of the battery charger. When a charge button of the walking aid stick is pushed, the walking aid stick accesses to a server that manages information showing the installation place of the battery charger and acquires the information of the installation place of the battery charger positioned closest to the visually impaired. The information is transmitted to the user-worn terminal and is informed to the visually impaired by the speaker of the user-worn terminal. The visually impaired hears the information showing the installation place of the battery charger by voice, goes to the battery charger 3 and charges the batteries of the walking aid stick.

The patent application numbered TR2021007763 describes an electronic glove virtual cane for the visually impaired. The present invention provides mapping of all objects at 180 degrees horizontally and vertically, including the level of the foot, as well as steps and potholes, which can replace the classic walking sticks used by the visually impaired, to ensure that the visually impaired person can move safely and completely independently.

The canes in the applications listed above have improvements in notifying and giving voice warnings against obstacles that disabled people will encounter during their movement on the road. However, they do not have an application to increase environmental awareness. These disabled people will not be able to know which shops, museums, food and beverage sales dealers, etc. are around them while traveling on the road. In fact, it is quite possible that citizens who want to fulfill their responsibility not only to the disabled person, but also to the disabled person, will not notice the disabled people traveling.

Description of the Invention:

The main purpose of our invention is to create a cane structure for the visually impaired and to overcome the above-mentioned shortcomings.

Our system, which is the subject of the invention, will increase environmental awareness together with the GPS module and NFC tag reading module it hosts. He will be able to learn about the places he visits, understand where there are shops or stores that he will visit for his needs, and eliminate the need to ask someone for directions.

Another purpose of our invention-related site is to ensure that a disabled person can take precautions against obstacles that they will encounter on the road or sidewalk, and even that people around them are aware of the disabled person. The ultrasonic sensor included in our invention allows a disabled person to notice obstacles approaching his cane and receive an audible warning from the relevant unit. The RGB color module allows you to notice people with disabilities who go for a walk at night. The main reason why it is lit in green, and red is to ensure that people with partial visual impairment or disabilities who have the ability to distinguish colors can obtain information in advance about the obstacles that they will face. Red color means that the obstacle is approaching, while green color means that there is no obstacle, or it is far away.

The camera and image processing module, on the other hand, will allow sharing information about concepts such as the ratio of the surrounding living population or day/night with a disabled person for situations where obstacles cannot be detected by sensors, or with a disabled person.

The invention includes a USB output and a headphone output. A disabled person who has hearing problems or is not affected by noise in crowded environments will be able to easily benefit from voice alerts by plugging their headset into the appropriate part. It will also be able to charge its phone via a battery with a USB output.

The body part of the invention is designed to be telescopic, which is suitable for any type of size. Therefore, it can be produced in a single product line regardless of the aspect ratio and everyone can use it.

It is easy to install thanks to the easy fixation of the parts that make up the invention to each other, it is low in costs due to the short assembly time. In addition, the invention has a solid structure.

Description of the Figures:

The invention will be described with reference to the accompanying figures, so that the features of the invention will be more clearly understood and appreciated, but the purpose of this is not to limit the invention to these certain regulations. On the contrary, it is intended to cover all alternatives, changes and equivalences that can be included in the area of the invention defined by the accompanying claims. The details shown should be understood that they are shown only for the purpose of describing the preferred embodiments of the present invention and are presented in order to provide the most convenient and easily understandable description of both the shaping of methods and the rules and conceptual features of the invention. In these drawings;

Figure 1 General perspective view of the system.

Figure 2 Detailed view of part A.

Figure 3 Schematic view of the electronic structure of the system.

Figure 4 Bottom perspective view of the system.

The figures to help understand the present invention are numbered as indicated in the attached image and are given below along with their names. Description of References:

1. Body

1.1. Hole

2. Telescopic tube

3. Pin

4. Electronic box

4.1.Headphone output

4.2. Buzzer output

4.3. USB output

5. NFC tag reader

6. Microcontroller

7. RGB color module

8. GPS module

9. Camera

10. Image processing module

11. Sensor

12. Buzzer

13. Motherboard

14. Battery

Description of the Invention:

The parts constituting the invention are basically; body (1), telescopic tube (2), pin (3), electronic box (4), NFC tag reader (5), microcontroller (6), RGB color module (7), GPS module (8), camera (9), image processing module (10), sensor (11), buzzer (12), motherboard (13) and battery (14). It contains at least one hole (1.1) on the body (1). The motherboard (13) has headphone output (4.1) and USB output (4.3) parts, these parts can be accessed via the electronic box (4). The information coming from the microcontroller (6) is transmitted to the headphone output (4.1) and USB output (4.3) over the motherboard (13). Due to the telescopic tube (2) and the spring pin (3) on the body (1), the distance of the walking stick relative to the ground can be adjusted. For short or tall people, the invention has an ergonomic and adjustable design feature.

The electronic box (4) located on the body (1) is the part where all the electronic components are located. The NFC tag reader (5) included in the invention can be used on roads, pavements, asphalt, etc. It is in charge of reading the tags that will be placed and on which information will be coded. Since NFC is also known as a near field communication module, it is positioned at the bottom of the body (1) in order to be close to the tags. The NFC tag reader (5) converts the data it reads into a signal and sends it to the microcontroller (6), and the microcontroller (6) transmits the information written on the tag to the user audibly through the buzzer (12) or the headphone output (4.1). For example; Pharmacy 5 m ahead, market on your right, grocery store on your left, etc. will inform the disabled person about the interactions around him. This information will be realized in cooperation with the GPS module (8) because the user's current location information is also required.

The RGB color module (7) included in the invention will increase the awareness of the disabled individual in the environment. That is, the obstacles that a disabled individual will encounter will be perceived by the ultrasonic sensor (11). By sending this sensor (11) signal to the microcontroller (6), the disabled individual will receive an audible warning from the buzzer (12). With this warning, the disabled individual will act much more cautiously and will be able to react to the interactions around him/her.

RGB color module (7) is included in the invention. The LED lamp will turn red if the disabled person encounters an obstacle, and green if he does not. For example; Although the disabled individual who set out at night receives an audible warning while crossing the street, the driver may not notice the disabled individual, so the driver will want to stop by seeing the red or green led light in order to prevent accidents. The main reason for distinguishing between red and green light is to provide convenience for people who have partial visual impairment, in other words, those who have not lost their visual function so that they can distinguish between colors. The camera (9) included in the invention will display the objects that the sensor (11) cannot detect, and the signals generated by the image processing unit (10) can be processed in the microcontroller (6) and transferred to the disabled person as an audible warning.

All electronic equipment subject to the invention is placed in an electronic box (4). In case of problems with electronic components, the clamshell box (4) is located on the outer part of the body (1) in order to facilitate disassembly and replacement of parts. There is a headphone output (4.1) on the electronic box (4) for the purpose of hearing the sounds that will be transmitted from the device due to the noise that will occur due to the surrounding dense and crowded environments. In a noisy environment, it may be difficult to hear the sound coming out of the buzzer (12), which acts as a speaker. Therefore, a disabled person will be able to easily hear warning or information sounds without being affected by the external environment by plugging his headset into this output (4.1). A disabled person will be able to easily charge their phone from the USB output (4.3) on their cane instead of using the charging stations located in the vicinity when they want to charge their phone. All electronic components in the invention will be supported by batteries (14) that can be placed in the electronic box (4) or in the body (1).