TRINETRA
A device to help the visually impaired commute with ease
Vignesh P , SharathKumar B
Vignesh989@gmail.com sharathkumarb93@gmail.com
Department of Information Science, BMSIT, Bangalore, India.
Abstract
What makes life beautiful? The incredible gift of vision that most of
us take for granted. The objective of this paper is to simplify the lives
of the visually impaired section of the demographic that cannot
experience the magic of sight. The objective of the paper is achieved
through the concepts of echolocation, virtual image building &
processing, maze solving algorithm, natural language processing
algorithm and GPS navigation. This paper will greatly improve the
quality of life of the blind community. By implementing the above
proposal, we bring them at par with the rest of us by giving them a
fair chance.
navigation device that directs its user safely and accurately to
his/her destination.
University of London has also developed voice a similar device
which covers a range of 180 degrees. Since Trinetra is worn
over the eyes and covers a range of 90 degrees in width and 10
feet in length, it is more accurate and processes images at a
faster rate.
Keywords: artificial eye, echolocation, image processing and
building, 3-d analyzing, and natural language processing.
Introduction
According to the World Health Organization, 285 million
people are visually impaired worldwide: 39 million are blind
and 246 have low vision. Most of them often are dependent on
someone to help them travel from a place to another place to
another. The biggest challenge they face is that the worlds
around us is changing constantly. The purpose of this paper is
to help visually impaired individuals move around obstacles
with ease, by providing them with this device they are more
independent and safe. The device takes the destination from the
user then using the GPS on board maps out a path to the
destination and by collecting the required information
constantly, then guides user navigate around obstacles on his
way. Our paper focuses on not only helping completely blind
individuals but is also helpful to those who are partially blind .
Related work
Researchers in Universidad Carlos III in Madrid have developed
a system using HMD device, virtual reality helmet that includes
2 cameras with a small computer attached to process the
received image. Trinetra uses two methods of ranging to
determine the distance and size of the image and hence gives a
more accurate view of the user’s surroundings. It also has a GPS
Figure 1.Trinetra model
Figure -4 Conceptual block diagram
Problem statement
About ninety percent of the worlds visually impaired live in
developing countries. Therefore as people who are gifted with
this ability, it is our responsibility to ensure that the disabled
community leads a wholesome and effortless life.
.
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Figure 2: Line of sight
Analysis
In an economical country like India, where many cannot afford
surgery, this device is extremely helpful and cost efficient.
There are a total of 8 types of blindness. Since there no cure
exists for all types, this device will act as a faithful companion
that leads its user safely from one point to another.
Another program determines the direction to take in order to
avoid the obstacle with ease.
The entire process of reverberation and imaging takes place in
60 frames per second which makes it extremely accurate in
predicting the path of a moving entity as well as stationary
objects.
This information is then converted to audio form by a translator
that converts machine level language into a human interactive
language which is conveyed to the user though a speaker. The
language of this audio can be customized according to the
specifications of the user.
We use sound waves that are of a very higher frequency (more
than 20,000 kHz and hence cannot be heard by humans. It also
eliminates the possibility of undesirable noises and interference.
Since the GPS navigation device will be dedicated to one city or
state depending the specific user’s location and preference. We
can make the maps very detail and accurate. This also means we
would require less space to store the map on board.
Due to the use of infrared cameras as a secondary device for
ranging, we are able to determine the object distance depending
on the heat signatures of the object.
Solution
Approach
GPS navigation device to receive directions (traffic constraints
are also taken into account).
Obstacles encountered are avoided by providing an alert to its
user.
STEP 1

We use a technique called flash-SONAR also called as
echolocation.

An oscillator generates a high frequency sound that
reflects back on collision with an obstacle as shown in
figure 5.
We use a GPS navigation device to receive directions from the
source to destination, also taking traffic constraints into account.
A route map is preloaded into the memory; it then provides
directions to its user guiding him/her towards the previously
specified destination in shortest available route. The obstacles
encountered on the way are avoided by providing constant alert
to its user.
An oscillator generates a high frequency sound that reflects
back on collision with an obstacle. This information includes
time taken for the sound to reflect back and the loss of intensity
of the sound during this process. Using this information, the
distance and density of the object from the user can be
calculated.
The infrared bulb along with the infrared camera is then used to
capture the heat signatures of the obstacle. This image is then
pixilated which gives the device an idea of the size of the
obstruction.
Software is programmed in such a way that the virtual sound
image and the IR image are superimposed on each other. It
determines both the distance and the size of the obstruction.
Figure 5.

Based on this information we are able to construct a
virtual image.

The working of this phase is similar to that of a
RADAR gun.

The drawback in this step is that we are unable to
determine the width of the object ahead of us.
Figure-6 IR image
STEP 3
•
The drawback faced in step 1 is overcome here.
•
The virtual image obtained in step 1 and the image
obtained from step 2 is superimposed to give us a fully
detailed 2D image.
Figure-6 Flash sonar image
STEP 2

The infrared camera along with the infrared bulbs
generates an IR radiation that captures the heat
signatures of the obstacle as shown in figure-6.

Here we use a technique called V-SLAM (visual
based simultaneous localization and mapping).

In this step geometrical potentials and optical flow
potentials are used to form graph like structures.

A graph based segmentation algorithm then forms
clusters of nodes of similar potentials, to form a
graph like structure.


This structure is used to calculate multi-view
geometrical constraints.
A two dimensional image gives us an exact layout
of the surroundings.
Figure-7: superimposing of two images.
STEP 4

A maze solving algorithm called
Random mouse is used. This is modified to manoeuvre
through the obstacles.
STEP 5



Budget
We use a Natural Language Processing Algorithm. It is
used to translate human understandable language to
machine level language and vice versa.
This information is then converted to audio form by a
Natural Language Processing Algorithm that converts
machine level language into a human interactive
language and vice versa which is conveyed to the user
though a speaker.
Table 1. The table below specifies the cost of building a prototype.
MATERIAL
GPS navigation device
RADAR gun
Two infrared bulbs
Infrared camera
Image and sound building circuit
Processing circuit
Speaker and mike
Software development
COST(INR)
4,000
7,000
5,000
2,500
3,000
10,000
500
2,50,000
Timeline
The language of this audio can be customized
according to the specifications of the user.(i.e. English,
Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, etc)
Image processing and data processing:
•
•
We use a real time operating system Vx-WORKS:
WIND RIVER by personal preference.(because it is
Supported by platforms such as x86, x86-64, MIPS,
PowerPC, SH-4, ARM, SPARC Version 8 (V8) and it
can be programmed in C, C++, Java)
We also use the world’s fastest GPU to process the
image based on Kepler’s GPU architecture and use two
technologies that have been used by the world’s
leading graphic card manufacturer NVIDIA1.
controls like GPU temperature target, overclocking,
and overvoltage to ensure the GPU works at the
ultimate performance.
CUDA.
(Aka Compute Unified Device Architecture) is a
parallel computing platform and programming model
created by NVIDIA.

Conclusion
Every application has its disadvantages. Here are some
disadvantages of Trinetra:
NVIDIA GPU Boost 2.0
Intelligently monitors work with even more advanced
2.
Figure -3 Time line
Based on such image processing and data processing
units we are able to achieve an image refresh rate of 60
frames/second.
1.
Overheating of the device.
It is a possible issue since we are using high end GPU, which
we are working on to eliminate.
2. It is not useful for individuals who are hearing as well as
visually impaired.
All the above mentioned disadvantages are not fatal enough to
deem the device unusable or ineffective. As mentioned above,
there are several types of incurable blindness’ along with cases
of partial blindness and night blindness. Trinetra not only makes
their lives easier but also makes them more independent. By not
having to depend on others to commute, the visually impaired
will gain a sense of confidence which will help them face the
world without feeling inferior.
References
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Xin ; Ren Lei, Intelligent Systems (GCIS), 2010 Second
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