PTU students make smart stick for visually impaired

Tribune News Service

Kapurthala, July 5

Students of IK Gujral Punjab Technical University (IKGPTU) have developed a smart stick named ‘Saathi’ with unique features that are still not available in the market.

The team consisting of Rachit Kumar, Hritik Kumar, Sahil Kumar, Manish Kumar, Nijman Jha and Navneet Kumar took their project for the national level Techfest, where they got third position and also got Rs 25,000 as cash prize. It is a smart stick for visually impaired, specially-abled persons and for senior citizens. Vice-Chancellor-cum-Principal Secretary, Technical Education-Industrial Training, Rahul Bhandari assured the students that the base cost of preparing and distributing the stick among needy persons and getting its patent would be paid by the university.

The students developed this idea under the mentorship of Dr Rakesh Goyal and Dr Amit Gupta, both are Assistant Professors in the Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) department, IKGPTU. They introduced smart and intelligent features in this stick. The stick’s main feature is the obstacle detector, through which the blind person is alerted about obstacles which will come their way and they become careful about it. The moisture detector has also been introduced through which the blind person gets some idea about the wet surface so the chances of slipping can be reduced. Another problem that they faced is that sometimes their stick gets misplaced by them.

“To help them overcome this problem, we have provided a smart band to help locate their stick,” said the students.

Sharing another feature, they said: “When any vehicle will come from the opposite direction on a dark road, an LED light would get switched on as an alert and accidents can be avoided.” Another problem with blind person is that when they are in the panic situation, they can just press the button and the message their live locatio nto their family member or friend. “We are introducing a live streaming camera on the stick through which their family members can get live streaming of their movements. This stick also has a solar charging feature and USB charging.