Smart Blind Stick Design and Implementation

Technologies are rapidly evolving, allowing people to live healthier and simpler lives. Sightless people are unable to carry out their everyday activities, such as walking down the street, visiting friends or relatives, or doing some other mundane tasks. As a result, the smart stick is a stick that can assist a person in walking safely without fear of colliding with another person or solid objects is proposed as a solution to this major issue. It is a development of the traditional blind stick as it acts as a companion for the blind when walking by sending audio alerts to the blind via a headphone connected to the phone with obstacles (water/walls/stairs / muddy ground) and also enables him to make a phone call to ask for help. EasyEda software was used for designing and simulating electrical circuits, was used to model the electric circuit. This system functions similarly to a white cane in that it assists blind people in scanning their surroundings for obstacles or orientation marks. This system will be mounted on a white cane with an ultrasonic sensor, and a water sensor to detect changes in the environment. Ultrasonic sensors detect obstacles in front of it using ultrasonic wave reflection, water detection sensors detect whether there is a puddle.

Rock mass property evaluation based on the borehole wall images taken by using an ultrasonic scanner (USS)

Discontinuities, such as faults and fractures exist even in Neogene soft sedimentary rocks. These discontinuities play an important role for determination of physical, mechanical and hydraulic properties of rock mass. For geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste, these data should be obtained for designs of the layout of repository, engineered barrier system and safety assessment. Rock mass properties are important information for quantitative rock mass classification as well as for design and construction of underground facilities and assessment of safe waste disposal. Ultrasonic wave reflection intensity of the wall of the borehole drilled from bottom of East Access Shaft in Horonobe Underground Research Laboratory Center, Hokkaido, Japan, was obtained by using the ultrasonic scanner (USS). In this paper, we compared results of USS observation with core logging data including the core observation, the optical digital scanner (ODS) observation, and result of Needle Penetration Index (NPI) tests. These results indicated that ultrasonic wave reflection intensity had a good correlation with other observation results, and USS observation and NPI test are useful techniques for the determination of the detailed rock mass classification.