/UltraPilot

An electronic sight aid for the visually impaired

Primary LanguageC++GNU General Public License v3.0GPL-3.0

UltraPilot

UltraPilot is a system for coupling remote sensing ranging data with haptic feedback, developed primarily with the goal of helping visually impaired persons be able to independently navigate unfamiliar territory without the disadvantages of traditional sight aids.

The library contains facilities to obtain ranging data from an ultrasonic sensor using a Raspberry Pi and produce vibrotactile feedback using vibrotactors that are also attached to a Raspberry Pi. The feedback from a single sensor can be scaled across multiple vibrotactors.

In order to autostart it when the Pi is started, call it from /etc/rc.local.

Dependencies

In order to compile UltraPilot, the compiled sources from wiringPi need to be available. The Makefile includes an example of how to link them. Remember to change the paths as necessary to match your setup.

Basic usage

The package contains an example main program which connects a single ultrasonic sensor and a single vibrotactor. The currently maximum ultrasonic range is set to 400 cm. The gpio API allows PWM intensities on a scale of 1 to 1023, which means that that is the "resolution" of values sent to the vibration motor.

For more information on how to use the program, call it without arguments.