VisionMate: Object Recognition and Distance Estimation with Auditory Feedback
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15662/IJEETR.2026.0802101Keywords:
Assistive Technology, Visually impared, Real-Time Object Detection, Raspberry Pi, MediaPipe, Ultrasonic sensing, Embedded Systems, EfficientDet-Lite, TFLite, Computer Vision (CV), Text-to-Speech, Spatial AwarenessAbstract
This project introduces a portable assistive device designed to give visually impaired users greater independence through real-time spatial awareness[1]. By combining Edge AI with ultrasonic sensing, the system identifies objects and calculates their exact distance to provide immediate auditory feedback.Built on a Raspberry Pi, the device uses Google Medi- aPipe and an EfficientDet-Lite model to recognize over 80 object classes entirely offline[2]. This ensures both user privacy and zero-latency performance. While the camera identifies ”what” is in the environment, an HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor—connected via a custom voltage divider—measures ”how far” an obstacle is using the Time-of-Flight principle.Through asynchronous multi- threading, the system simultaneously processes video, calculates distance, and provides voice cues (e.g., ”I see a chair at 120 centimeters”). With a stable performance of 15–20 FPS and ±1cm accuracy, this prototype offers a robust, low-cost solution for real-time obstacle avoidance.
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