Visual Utility Technological Aid is an Electronic Travel Aid (ETA) designed to help the visually impaired avoid obstacles with the help of digital camera that foresees the object and collision in front of the impaired person serving as the temporary eyes for the blind.
The production of the device started in early January of 2023 as the second semester started 2023. Most of the materials used in production were purchased at a cheaper price at Facebook Marketplace.
The total cost for buying all the parts was ₱10,000 pesos or around $185 dollars at that time.
Persons responsible for the hardware construction are Ashley Cabreros and Jrodd Tecson while persons responsible for the software are Hans Dela Cruz and Jrodd Tecson. Documentation and data analysis was provided by Andriane Ruiz
Difficulties arose during production of the device such as the lithium batteries nearly catching fire during installation of the battery slot, device cooling methods, testing the device if OpenCV was detecting objects, and tweaking the detection distance of the Raspberry Pi Cam and the ultrasonic sensor.
Before we were able to fit them the device, we have signed a Non-disclosure agreement with the participants obtaining their consent through their signatures and thumb marks anonymizing their identities while obtaining their opinions after they tried our the device.
The researchers would go on to present the project in the 12th Research Congress held at Cebu Institute of Technology which would land them a 2nd Place in the Oral Category
