Head movement based wireless communication with speech alert

ABSTRACT

In some cases due to spinal cord injury human can lose controller over all his body parts except head. In such cases for the help of the patient there is a requirement for a helper at every time. For example if the patient requires fan then he should inform to his helper like this are many instances where he requires helper like in switching fan, lights, TV.. Etc. These purposes can be served without the need of another human help.

This project serves the purpose of controlling the home appliances by physically handicapped patients without the need of a helper. Here accelerometer sensors are attached to a head mask of the patient. Just by the movement of the head the patient can control the home appliances.

INTRODUCTION

Communication is an essential part of human life. If communication is disturbed or impossible, the consequences are loneliness and isolation. It is well known that speech plays a key role in communication and it explains why humans also want to have speech as a means of communication/interaction with computers. Although human-like speech dialogue with computers is still far off, even with current state-of-the-art technology, the benefits and potential of speech processing are obvious.

People make use of different languages to express their thoughts in a different way. But, it is difficult for the people who are affected, partially, by paralysis and stroke. Hence, there is a need to develop a platform for those people who are physically challengeable. An Embedded device shall address the above said problems.

Paralysis is a life-changing condition, especially if the injury prohibits the person from going about the daily routines or jobs the way got used to doing it. Our goal is to provide these people an affordable solution that can make them independent for most of their day and enable them to work, create, and feel useful in the society.

This project provides the controlling of home appliances, controlling wheel chair movement and giving emergency alert with the head movement via zigbee.An accelerometer will be placed on the centre, topmost, position of the head an individual who is physically disabled or cannot speak due to paralysis. Any movement of the head in particular direction would cause the accelerometer to generate an output voltage. These output voltages corresponds to the change in gravity. These output voltages are fed as input to the microcontroller. four commands are provided for controlling above parameters. The commands are communicated via zigbee from patient unit to controlling unit.

DESCRIPTION

Many embedded systems have substantially different designs according to their functions and utilities. In this project design, structured modular design concept is adopted and the system is mainly composed of a single microcontroller, LCD, accelerometer, MP3 module, speaker, CPU Fan, relay, GSM, L293, zigbee.

The microcontroller located at the centre of the block diagram forms the control unit of the entire project. Embedded within the microcontroller is a program that helps the microcontroller to take action based on the inputs provided by the output of the sensors.

In this project accelerometer will be placed on the centre, topmost, position of the head an individual who is physically disabled or cannot speak due to paralysis. four commands are provided for controlling wheel chair movement, home appliances and emergency alert . The commands are communicated via zigbee from patient unit to controlling unit.

The microcontroller processes the incoming voltages from the sensor depending on the program embedded within it. The output is fed to another unit through zigbee. The other unit receives commands via zigbee for wheel chair movement, home appliances controlling, and any emergency alerting. Any emergency alerts are intimated through GSM for patient’s guardian and voice alert is also given through mp3 module.

Renesas (RL78) is 16 bit architecture, it has 64I/O pin (R5F100LE). It has 11 I/O ports, 64kB ROM, 4kB RAM,1 watch dog timer,I2C protocol, 3 UART’s, 10 bit ADC, 8 Timers, on chip debug function, high speed on-chip oscillator.

A liquid crystal display (LCD) is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, based on Liquid Crystal Technology liquid crystal display consists of an array of tiny segments (called pixels) that can be manipulated to present information.LCDs are used in a wide range of applications, including computer monitors, television, instrument panels, aircraft cockpit displays, signage, etc. They are common in consumer devices such as video players, gaming devices, clocks, watches, calculators, and telephones.

SIM900 is a Tri-band GSM/GPRS engine that works on frequencies EGSM 900 MHz, DCS 1800 MHz and PCS 1900 MHz SIM900 features GPRS multi-slot class 10/ class 8 (optional) and supports the GPRS coding schemes CS-1, CS-2, CS-3 and CS-4.

AT Commands are used to get information in SIM card. The SIM interface supports the functionality of the GSM Phase 1 specification and also supports the functionality of the new GSM Phase 2+ specification for FAST 64 kbps SIM (intended for use with a SIM application Tool-kit).Both 1.8V and 3.0V SIM Cards are supported. The SIM interface is powered from an internal regulator in the module having nominal voltage 2.8V. All pins reset as outputs driving low.

Anaccelerometeris a device that measuresproper acceleration("g-force"). Proper acceleration is not the same as coordinate acceleration (rate of change of velocity). For example, an accelerometer at rest on the surface of the Earth will measure an accelerationg=9.81m/s2straight upwards. By contrast, accelerometers infree fall(falling toward the center of the Earth at a rate of about 9.81 m/s2) will measure zero.

ZigBeeis anIEEE 802.15.4-basedspecificationfor a suite of high-level communication protocols used to createpersonal area networkswith small, low-powerdigital radios.

The technology defined by the ZigBee specification is intended to be simpler and less expensive than otherwireless personal area networks(WPANs), such asBluetoothorWi-Fi. Applications include wireless light switches, electrical meters with in-home-displays, traffic management systems, and other consumer and industrial equipment that requires short-range low-rate wireless data transfer.

Arelayis anelectricallyoperatedswitch. Many relays use anelectromagnetto mechanically operate a switch, but other operating principles are also used, such assolid-state relays. Relays are used where it is necessary to control a circuit by a low-power signal (with complete electrical isolation between control and controlled circuits), or where several circuits must be controlled by one signal.

L293Dis aMotor driverintegrated circuit which is used to drive DC motors rotating in either direction. It is a 16-pin IC which can control a set of two DC motors simultaneously. The L293D uses 5V for its own power and external power source is needed to drive the motors, which can be up to 36V and draw up to 600mA.

Demo points:

Accelerometer Sensor is connected to the head of the patient according to the movement of the head the flex sensor bends and corresponding to that the resistance of the flex sensor changes. The output of the flex sensor is connected to the ADC where it gives digital equivalent voltage to the analog input.

Micro controller gets digital inputs from ADC. Program is burnt into micro controller which is connected with Zigbee. Zigbee is a Wireless transceiver. Where it can receive signals up to 100m. UART protocol is used to communicate between micro controller and Zigbee.

Receiver Zigbee receives the signals and transfers it to the micro controller through UART. The controller activates the relays according to the input condition. The relays activate the home appliances which is required.

BLOCK DIAGRAM:

COMPONENTS USED

Hardware’s used

  • Renesas microcontroller 30 pin and 64 pin
  • LCD
  • Accelerometer
  • Zigbee
  • Gsm
  • L293d
  • Relay
  • Cpu fan
  • MP3 module
  • speaker

Software’s used

  • Cube suite+
  • Renesas flash programmer

APPLICATIONS

  • Used for physically handicapped people

ADVANTAGES

  • Avoids helpers for the handicapped people
  • Easy to use

FUTURE SCOPE

For project demo concern, we have developed a prototype module. In future, this project can be taken to the product level. To make this project as user friendly and durable, we need to make it compact and cost effective. Going further, most of the units can be embedded along with the controller on a single board with change in technology, thereby reducing the size of the system.

REFERENCES

  • International Journal of Advanced Technology in Engineering and Science Volume No.02, IssueNo.05, May2014
  • International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887) Volume 79 – No 13, October 2013