A smart walking stick for the visually challenged, invented by six engineering students, is being praised in the engineering college circuit all over Bengal. If everything goes well, it may soon be commercially sold in markets.
Six engineering students – Abhilash Ghosh, Chinmay Sarkar, Gaurav Chowdhury, Gaurav Chandra Ghosh, Jaybrata Das, and Santanu Nath – from Surendra Institute of Engineering and Management, Siliguri, came up with this unique product.
These third year students pursuing B Tech said that the smart sticks — meant for visually challenged persons — have modern ultra-sound sensor, or the Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) sensor that can help identify something coming in the way, including vehicles, from a distance.
As soon as the object is identified, the person holding the stick would be immediately alerted. Anyone holding the stick can therefore move freely, and even cross a busy road safely and comfortably without seeking help from others.
Abhilash Ghosh, one of the team members said that the response has been very encouraging so far. They haven’t yet started with the branding of the product, but the college administration said it would be launch in the market soon for commercial sale.
The smart blind sticks cost approximately Rs 1,000, but the market price would be lowered with some amount of subsidy so that common people may use it.
The students want to offer a prototype of the smart blind stick to an institute for the physically disabled, in Siliguri, after it goes through all necessary checks at the college laboratory. The commercial production can commence from there.
The team will now have to manage the commercial sale of the product along with studies and examination. Ghosh said, “It will be difficult to manage studies and marketing the product at the same time, but it is still important that we do. Not only in engineering, other disciplines in science too must focus on practical application of their knowledge along with traditional method of studying.”
