IKGPTU students develop intelligent and smart stick “SAATHI” for visually impaired persons

Jalandhar/Kapurthala, July 4, 2022: Rachit Kumar, Hritik Kumar, students of I.K. Gujral Punjab Technical University (IKGPTU) developed an intelligent and smart device named "SAATHI". It is a smart stick for visually impaired, specially abled persons, and for senior citizens too. The first model of this smart stick was presented by the students to the Vice Chancellor cum Principal Secretary, Technical Education-Industrial Training (PSTE), Govt. of Punjab Mr. Rahul Bhandari IAS. He appreciated the innovative idea and initiative of the students. Encouraging the team, he assured the students that the base cost of preparing and distributing the stick between the needy persons and getting its patent would be paid by the university. He was asked to submit an expenditure report, through the Registrar's Office, to the concerned Engineering Department. Mr. Rahul Bhandari said that this is an initiative taken by the students realizing our responsibility towards the society. Today, it is the duty of educational institutions to make students accountable to every section of society.
 
The students developed this idea under the mentorship of Dr. Rakesh Goyal & Dr. Amit Gupta, both are Asst. Professors in the Electronics & Communication Engineering (ECE) department, IKGPTU, main campus. They introduced smart and intelligent features in this stick. The first feature of the stick is the obstacle detector, through which the blind person knows the information about obstacles which will come their way and they become careful about it.
 
It is also observed by the students and faculty that sometimes the blind person couldn’t detect the wet or slippery surface and may get slipped. To overcome this problem, a moisture detector feature has also been introduced through which the blind person gets some idea about the wet surface they will walk consciously on that surface so the chances of slipping can be reduced.
 
Another problem with blind person is that sometimes their stick will be misplaced by them so they come in trouble without having their stick to overcome this problem we provide a smart band to that blind person through which they can press a button on band that will indicate or switched on the buzzer which is on the smart stick through the sound of that buzzer the blind person recognizes their stick it will help a lot to blind person.
 
Next problem with blind person is that sometime when the blind person walking on road that doesn’t have any street light so when any vehicle come from opposite direction of the blind person can’t recognize and may cause accident also to overcome this problem we can also use the night sensor on the stick through which when blind person comes in the dark area the LED light on the smart stick will be switched on.
 
Car or scooter drivers will be able to see the blind person and accidents can be avoided. Another problem with blind person is that when they are in the panic situation they not able to call or give their live location to their family members to overcome this problem we can introduce helping hand button on the stick also through which blind person in any type of panic situation, can press the button and the message with their live location will be sent to their family member/ friend. We are introducing a live streaming camera on the stick through which their family members also live streams their movements. We assume that if the blind person is also dumb, a voice module can also be introduced on the stick though which they can press the button and the speaker gives pre-recorded output sounds like “give me food”, “give me water” etc. This stick also has a solar charging feature and USB charging.
 
The IKGPTU student team of Rachit Kumar, Hritik Kumar, Sahil Kumar, Manish Kumar, Nijman Jha and Navneet Kumar having this project got 3rd position at National level event Techfest and also got Rs 25,000 as cash prize and some other exciting vouchers.